Noometry

Model comparison

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Step 3.5 Flash

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 14 shared benchmarks.

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT Google

43.5

Rank #92 Confirmed

Step 3.5 Flash StepFun

42.3

Rank #116 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT scores higher in 5 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 3 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads 45.7 to 39.6.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper at $0.0675 / $0.23 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
  • Gemma 4 26B A4B IT accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.

Side by side

Gemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
ProviderGoogleStepFun
Noometry Index43.542.3
Released2026-04-022026-01-29
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window262K256K
Max output33K256K
Input $ / M tokens$0.0675$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.23$0.30
Results tracked2819

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Category by category

Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 39.0 (#164), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Coding14471436
LMArena WebDev1359—
SciCode40%—
WeirdML35.2%—
ALE-Bench927.17—

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 21.8 (#213), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Hard Prompts14391411
NYT Connections (extended)—28.4%
CritPt0%—
Chess Puzzles6%—
DTBench74.9%—
LMCA29.7%—
Epoch Capabilities Index141.85—

Math Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 47.6 (#67), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Math14701408
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—66.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202582.2%—

Knowledge Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 45.7 (#85), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Expert14471421
GPQA Diamond73.2%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate5.2%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 40.6 (#46), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1260—

Multilingual Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 53.1 (#71), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English14211385
LMArena Chinese14951447
LMArena French14601421
LMArena Russian14341385
LMArena Spanish14171419
LMArena German—1405
LMArena Japanese—1354
LMArena Korean—1352

Instruction Following Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 74.8 (#82), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14201385

Long Context Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 43.6 (#91), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query14281402

Writing & Preference Too close to call

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT: 58.6 (#115), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

BenchmarkGemma 4 26B A4B ITStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text14341403
LMArena Creative Writing14021357
LMArena Multi-Turn14411405
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1305—

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Step 3.5 Flash?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is cheaper. It lists at $0.0675 per million input tokens and $0.23 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B IT or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 39.0 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT does, with 262K tokens against 256K.

How many benchmarks do Gemma 4 26B A4B IT and Step 3.5 Flash share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT has 28 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.

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