Model comparison
Granite 4.0 H Small vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 13 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Granite 4.0 H Small scores higher in 1 category and Step 3.5 Flash in 7 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 58.8 to 43.8.
Side by side
| Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 36.5 | 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 | 19 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 36.4 (#209), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1249 | 1436 |
Reasoning Granite 4.0 H Small leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 24.4 (#163), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1240 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 31.4 (#223), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1247 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| Omni-MATH | 29.6% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 32.0 (#215), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1251 | 1421 |
| MMLU-Pro | 56.9% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.2% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 38.3% | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 38.6 (#228), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1216 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1249 | 1447 |
| LMArena Russian | 1201 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1258 | 1419 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 68.7 (#183), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1222 | 1385 |
| IFEval | 89% | — |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 37.7 (#213), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1242 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Granite 4.0 H Small: 43.8 (#227), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 H Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1241 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1211 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1242 | 1405 |
| WildBench | 73.9% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Granite 4.0 H Small better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 36.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Granite 4.0 H Small or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 36.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 H Small and Step 3.5 Flash share?
13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 H Small has 19 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.