# Amazon Nova Lite vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/amazon-nova-lite-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Amazon Nova Lite 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 42.1.
- Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper at $0.06 / $0.24 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Amazon Nova Lite accepts more context: 300K tokens versus 256K.
- Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Amazon | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.9 | 42.3 |
| Rank | 265 | 116 |
| Context | 300K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.06 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.24 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Amazon Nova Lite: 32.5 (#270)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1239 | 1436 |
| LiveBench Coding | 27.5% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 236.25 | — |

## Reasoning

- Amazon Nova Lite: 19.3 (#260)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1220 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 36.7% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 37.2% | — |
| LiveBench | 36.4% | — |

## Math

- Amazon Nova Lite: 27.8 (#247)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1227 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| Omni-MATH | 23.3% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 36.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Amazon Nova Lite: 26.3 (#259)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1201 | 1421 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 3.6% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 60% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 6.1% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 39.7% | — |
| MMLU | 77% | — |

## Multimodal

- Amazon Nova Lite: 25.5 (#123)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 990 | — |

## Multilingual

- Amazon Nova Lite: 38.0 (#232)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1208 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1225 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1237 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1229 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1153 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1153 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1226 | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Amazon Nova Lite: 59.3 (#255)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1205 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 54.1% | — |
| IFEval | 77.6% | — |

## Long Context

- Amazon Nova Lite: 37.4 (#217)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1234 | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Amazon Nova Lite: 42.1 (#237)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

| Benchmark | Amazon Nova Lite | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1229 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1197 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1199 | 1405 |
| WildBench | 75% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 25.9% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Amazon Nova Lite better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 31.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Amazon Nova Lite or Step 3.5 Flash?

Amazon Nova Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.06 per million input tokens and $0.24 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.

### Is Amazon Nova Lite or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 32.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Amazon Nova Lite does, with 300K tokens against 256K.

### How many benchmarks do Amazon Nova Lite and Step 3.5 Flash share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Amazon Nova Lite has 34 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.