Model comparison
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct vs Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Microsoft
StepFunSummary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct 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 writing & preference, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 58.8 to 27.6.
Side by side
| Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Microsoft | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 27.9 | 42.3 |
| Released | 2024-04-23 | 2026-01-29 |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | — | 256K |
| Max output | — | 256K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.10 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.30 |
| Results tracked | 35 | 19 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#323), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1093 | 1436 |
| LiveBench Coding | 15.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 59.1% | — |
| MBPP+ | 54.2% | — |
Reasoning Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 14.1 (#328), Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1072 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 26.8% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 34.7% | — |
| Adversarial NLI | 52.8% | — |
| BIG-Bench Hard | 71.7% | — |
| HellaSwag | 76.7% | — |
| LiveBench | 22.4% | — |
| WinoGrande | 70.8% | — |
Math Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.6 (#257), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1111 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| LiveBench Math | 15.7% | — |
Knowledge Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 28.5 (#246), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1045 | 1421 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 84.9% | — |
| MMLU | 68.8% | — |
| OpenBookQA | 88% | — |
| TriviaQA | 64% | — |
Multilingual Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 26.3 (#280), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1021 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1021 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1076 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1044 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 935 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 905 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1022 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1085 | 1419 |
Instruction Following Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 47.7 (#303), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1053 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 39.1% | — |
Long Context Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 31.7 (#276), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1044 | 1402 |
Writing & Preference Step 3.5 Flash leads
Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct: 27.6 (#300), Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)
| Benchmark | Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1073 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1037 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1018 | 1405 |
| LiveBench Language | 9.2% | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct better than Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 27.9 on the Noometry Index.
Is Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?
Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 26.6 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct and Step 3.5 Flash share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Phi 3 Mini 4k Instruct has 35 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.