Model comparison

Qwen3-30B-A3B vs Step 3

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 16 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3-30B-A3B Alibaba (Qwen)

38.9

Rank #179 Confirmed

Step 3 StepFun

40.5

Rank #149 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3-30B-A3B scores higher in 4 categories and Step 3 in 4 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in long context, where Step 3 leads 40.3 to 31.0.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 54.9% for Qwen3-30B-A3B and 62.3% for Step 3.

Side by side

Qwen3-30B-A3B and Step 3 specifications
Qwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)StepFun
Noometry Index38.940.5
Released2025-04-28—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window41K—
Max output16K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.12—
Output $ / M tokens$0.50—
Results tracked3217

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Category by category

Coding Step 3 leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.5 (#194), Step 3: 40.1 (#147)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Coding14161367
SciCode33.3%—
WeirdML29.8%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 29.8 (#82), Step 3: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard41.4%—

Reasoning Step 3 leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 22.2 (#204), Step 3: 28.4 (#105)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
Kagi LLM Benchmark54.9%62.3%
LMArena Hard Prompts13981355
CritPt0.3%—
Chess Puzzles8%—
DTBench69.3%—
LMCA22.4%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.63—

Math Too close to call

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.4 (#157), Step 3: 37.6 (#148)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Math13941366
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions47.8%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202570.3%—

Knowledge Qwen3-30B-A3B leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 41.8 (#105), Step 3: 36.8 (#164)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Expert13961333
GPQA Diamond70.1%—
Confabulations12.3%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen3-30B-A3B: —, Step 3: 35.5 (#86)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Vision—1177

Multilingual Qwen3-30B-A3B leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 49.5 (#132), Step 3: 46.3 (#159)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Non-English13721327
LMArena Chinese14331397
LMArena German13801371
LMArena Korean13311269
LMArena Russian13701331
LMArena Spanish14041371
LMArena French1418—
LMArena Japanese1337—

Instruction Following Qwen3-30B-A3B leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 72.0 (#142), Step 3: 70.4 (#164)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Instruction Following13631332

Long Context Step 3 leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 31.0 (#283), Step 3: 40.3 (#157)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Longer Query13791326
Fiction.LiveBench40.6%—

Writing & Preference Qwen3-30B-A3B leads

Qwen3-30B-A3B: 55.6 (#143), Step 3: 54.3 (#151)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3-30B-A3BStep 3
LMArena Text13841350
LMArena Creative Writing13171321
LMArena Multi-Turn13781341
Short-Story Creative Writing75.3%—

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3-30B-A3B better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index.

Is Qwen3-30B-A3B or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 37.5 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Qwen3-30B-A3B and Step 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3-30B-A3B has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.

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