Model comparison
Magistral Medium vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 35.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Magistral Medium scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 22.2 to 8.6.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $5 for Magistral Medium.
- Magistral Medium accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.
Side by side
| Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 35.2 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2025-03-17 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 256K |
| Max output | 16K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $2 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $5 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 22 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 39.1 (#161), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1319 | 1436 |
| SciCode | 39.2% | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 8.6 (#348), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1267 | 1411 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 0% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 16.2% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 6.1% | — |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 35.1 (#189), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1250 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 33.5 (#202), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1223 | 1421 |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 39.6 (#224), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1232 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1227 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1267 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1248 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1175 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1125 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1224 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1271 | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 66.0 (#211), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1254 | 1385 |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 39.3 (#183), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1295 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Magistral Medium: 46.3 (#219), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Magistral Medium | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1255 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1245 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1275 | 1405 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Magistral Medium better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 35.2 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Magistral Medium 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; Magistral Medium lists at $2 and $5.
Is Magistral Medium or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 39.1 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Magistral Medium does, with 262K tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Magistral Medium and Step 3.5 Flash share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Magistral Medium has 22 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.