Model comparison
GPT-5.6 Sol vs Step 3.5 Flash
GPT-5.6 Sol is the stronger model overall, scoring 65.0 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Step 3.5 Flash costs 53× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Sol's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 18 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 18 benchmarks with published results for both. GPT-5.6 Sol scores higher in 8 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where GPT-5.6 Sol leads 74.8 to 22.2.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 93.8% for GPT-5.6 Sol and 28.4% for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $4 / $20 for GPT-5.6 Sol.
- GPT-5.6 Sol accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 256K.
- Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 65.0 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2026-07-09 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | 1.05M | 256K |
| Max output | 128K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $4 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $20 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 65 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 65.1 (#7), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1498 | 1436 |
| DeepSWE | 72.7% | — |
| FrontierCode | 47.5% | — |
| CursorBench | 41.7% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1618 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 32.2% | — |
| SciCode | 57.1% | — |
| GSO | 76.5% | — |
| WeirdML | 89.4% | — |
| MirrorCode | 20% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 2,177 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
GPT-5.6 Sol: 50.3 (#7), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 51.4% | — |
| OSWorld 2.0 | 27.3% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 46.9% | — |
| PostTrainBench | 36.2% | — |
| BALROG | 60% | — |
| GBAEval | 52.6% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1257 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 9,619 | — |
Reasoning GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 74.8 (#8), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | 93.8% | 28.4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1484 | 1411 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 92.5% | — |
| SimpleBench | 71.7% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 67% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 97.5% | — |
| CritPt | 32.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 64% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 37.1% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 44.8% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 58% | — |
| DTBench | 96% | — |
| LMCA | 59.2% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 93.1% | — |
| Bench to the Future 3 | 0.14 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 161.66 | — |
Math GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 85.6 (#9), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1474 | 1408 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 89.1% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 82.9% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 100% | — |
| ProofBench | 83% | — |
| FrontierMath Erdős | 0% | — |
Knowledge GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 64.3 (#18), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1516 | 1421 |
| GPQA Diamond | 93.5% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 69.7% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 12.4% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
GPT-5.6 Sol: 48.6 (#9), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1281 | — |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 33.6% | — |
| Furniture Assembly | 56.7% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1483 | — |
Multilingual GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 55.3 (#32), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1452 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1527 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1477 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1476 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1471 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1442 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1468 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1441 | 1419 |
Instruction Following GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 77.7 (#16), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1482 | 1385 |
Long Context GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 45.4 (#42), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1480 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference GPT-5.6 Sol leads
GPT-5.6 Sol: 73.3 (#12), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | GPT-5.6 Sol | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1457 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1448 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1460 | 1405 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1972 | — |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1250 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is GPT-5.6 Sol better than Step 3.5 Flash?
GPT-5.6 Sol is the stronger model overall, scoring 65.0 to 42.3 on the Noometry Index. Step 3.5 Flash costs 53× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GPT-5.6 Sol's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.6 Sol or Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; GPT-5.6 Sol lists at $4 and $20.
Is GPT-5.6 Sol or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
GPT-5.6 Sol scores higher on coding benchmarks: 65.1 versus 42.4 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-5.6 Sol does, with 1.05M tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do GPT-5.6 Sol and Step 3.5 Flash share?
18 benchmarks have published results for both models. GPT-5.6 Sol has 65 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.