Noometry

Model comparison

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B vs Step 3.5 Flash

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.5 vs 41.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B Alibaba (Qwen)

42.5

Rank #98 Confirmed

Step 3.5 Flash StepFun

41.7

Rank #116 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B scores higher in 7 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 1 category; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads 28.1 to 21.2.
  • Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.70 / $2.80 for Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B.
  • Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)StepFun
Noometry Index42.541.7
Released2025-042026-01-29
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K256K
Max output33K256K
Input $ / M tokens$0.70$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$2.80$0.30
Results tracked1819

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Category by category

Coding Too close to call

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 41.8 (#103), Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Coding14381436

Reasoning Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 28.1 (#92), Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Hard Prompts14281411
NYT Connections (extended)—28.4%

Math Step 3.5 Flash leads

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 36.2 (#120), Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Math14261408
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—66.8%

Knowledge Too close to call

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.6 (#120), Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Expert14401422

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 39.1 (#50), Step 3.5 Flash: —

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1247—

Multilingual Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 52.1 (#92), Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Non-English14051386
LMArena Chinese14621448
LMArena French14481421
LMArena German14241404
LMArena Japanese13851353
LMArena Korean13951350
LMArena Russian14091385
LMArena Spanish14271419

Instruction Following Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 74.4 (#95), Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14071385

Long Context Too close to call

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 43.4 (#93), Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Longer Query14201402

Writing & Preference Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B leads

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B: 60.4 (#94), Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

BenchmarkQwen3-VL 235B-A22BStep 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text14201403
LMArena Creative Writing13671357
LMArena Multi-Turn14281405

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B and Step 3.5 Flash score almost the same on the Noometry Index (42.5 vs 41.7), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B 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; Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B lists at $0.70 and $2.80.

Is Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (41.8 vs 41.7); test both on your own repository before choosing.

Which has the bigger context window?

Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B and Step 3.5 Flash share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3-VL 235B-A22B has 18 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.

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