Model comparison
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B vs Step 3
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)
StepFunSummary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B scores higher in 6 categories and Step 3 in 2 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads 47.8 to 36.8.
Side by side
| Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 42.0 | 40.5 |
| Released | 2026-02-01 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |
| Context window | 262K | — |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | $0.25 | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | $2 | — |
| Results tracked | 28 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Step 3 leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 33.8 (#251), Step 3: 40.1 (#147)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1410 | 1367 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1254 | — |
| SciCode | 29.3% | — |
Reasoning Step 3 leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 24.6 (#161), Step 3: 28.4 (#105)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1400 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| CritPt | 0.6% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 10% | — |
| DTBench | 80% | — |
| LMCA | 29.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 142.52 | — |
Math Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 39.9 (#97), Step 3: 37.6 (#148)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1404 | 1366 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 56% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 70% | — |
Knowledge Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 47.8 (#79), Step 3: 36.8 (#164)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1408 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 83.5% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 10.5% | — |
Multimodal Not comparable
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: —, Step 3: 35.5 (#86)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1177 |
Multilingual Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 50.0 (#127), Step 3: 46.3 (#159)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1378 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1457 | 1397 |
| LMArena German | 1367 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1356 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1376 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1392 | 1371 |
| LMArena French | 1412 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1325 | — |
Instruction Following Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 72.8 (#128), Step 3: 70.4 (#164)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1379 | 1332 |
Long Context Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 42.4 (#127), Step 3: 40.3 (#157)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1389 | 1326 |
Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 35B-A3B leads
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B: 57.9 (#124), Step 3: 54.3 (#151)
| Benchmark | Qwen3.5 35B-A3B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1395 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1346 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1390 | 1341 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen3.5 35B-A3B better than Step 3?
Qwen3.5 35B-A3B is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.0 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.
Is Qwen3.5 35B-A3B or Step 3 better for coding?
Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 33.8 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5 35B-A3B and Step 3 share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5 35B-A3B has 28 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.