Model comparison
Ministral 8B vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.2 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 12 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
StepFunSummary
- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Ministral 8B 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 knowledge, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 39.6 to 12.6.
- Both cost about the same: $0.15 input and $0.15 output per million tokens.
- Ministral 8B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.
Side by side
| Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 28.2 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2024-10-01 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 256K |
| Max output | 262K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 17 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 35.0 (#230), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1202 | 1436 |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Ministral 8B: 16.4 (#148), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 11.1% | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 18.4 (#281), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1191 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| DTBench | 45.7% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 25.7 (#267), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1188 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| MATH Level 5 | 14.9% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 12.6 (#297), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1170 | 1421 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27.1% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.4% | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 35.1 (#247), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1165 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1193 | 1447 |
| LMArena Russian | 1195 | 1385 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 60.5 (#250), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1161 | 1385 |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 36.7 (#227), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1212 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Ministral 8B: 39.6 (#246), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Ministral 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1191 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1175 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1166 | 1405 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Ministral 8B better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 28.2 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Ministral 8B or Step 3.5 Flash?
Ministral 8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.
Is Ministral 8B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 35.0 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Ministral 8B does, with 262K tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Ministral 8B and Step 3.5 Flash share?
12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Ministral 8B has 17 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.