Model comparison
Mistral Small vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 33.4 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Mistral AI
StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 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 math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.6 to 16.4.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.15 / $0.60 for Mistral Small.
- Mistral Small accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 256K.
Side by side
| Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 33.4 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2024-02-26 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | 256K |
| Max output | 256K | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.15 | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $0.60 | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 39 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 34.0 (#247), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1362 | 1436 |
| SciCode | 26.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 36.1% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 36.2% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 46.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 497.62 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Mistral Small: 28.1 (#93), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 37.1% | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 19.8 (#250), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1335 | 1411 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 37.8% | — |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 44.8% | — |
| DTBench | 70.9% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 53.7% | — |
| LMCA | 20.6% | — |
| LiveBench | 44% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 16.4 (#293), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1341 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 5.8% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 39.9% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 46.8% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 31.0 (#222), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1291 | 1421 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 5.1% | — |
| MMLU | 68.7% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Mistral Small: 33.5 (#96), Step 3.5 Flash: —
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1142 | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 45.5 (#169), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1315 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1340 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1337 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1340 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1275 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1259 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1324 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1346 | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 66.4 (#209), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1310 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 63.7% | — |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 40.4 (#156), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1327 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Mistral Small: 52.5 (#171), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Mistral Small | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1338 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1305 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1344 | 1405 |
| LiveBench Language | 30.5% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Mistral Small better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 33.4 on the Noometry Index.
Which is cheaper, Mistral Small 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; Mistral Small lists at $0.15 and $0.60.
Is Mistral Small or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 34.0 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Mistral Small does, with 262K tokens against 256K.
How many benchmarks do Mistral Small and Step 3.5 Flash share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small has 39 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.