Model comparison
Granite 4.0 Micro vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.6 to 12.0.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 131K.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2025-10-02 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 131K | 256K |
| Max output | 118K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.017 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.11 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 8 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1421 |
Multilingual Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1447 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |
Long Context Not comparable
Granite 4.0 Micro: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Step 3.5 Flash?
Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.
Which has the bigger context window?
Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Step 3.5 Flash share?
0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.