Model comparison
Granite 4.2 30b vs Step 3.5 Flash
Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.2 30b scores higher in 1 category and Step 3.5 Flash in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Granite 4.2 30b leads 27.8 to 22.2.
Side by side
| Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 41.8 | 42.3 |
| Released | — | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 256K |
| Max output | — | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 11 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.0 (#126), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1396 | 1436 |
Reasoning Granite 4.2 30b leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 27.8 (#112), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1374 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
Math Not comparable
Granite 4.2 30b: —, Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |
Knowledge Too close to call
Granite 4.2 30b: 39.1 (#138), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1406 | 1421 |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 47.3 (#151), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1340 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1414 | 1447 |
| LMArena Russian | 1343 | 1385 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 71.2 (#155), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1347 | 1385 |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 41.4 (#140), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1359 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.2 30b: 53.8 (#156), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.2 30b | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1361 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1288 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1339 | 1405 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.2 30b better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (41.8 vs 42.3), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Is Granite 4.2 30b or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 41.0 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.2 30b and Step 3.5 Flash share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.2 30b has 11 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.