# Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-1-5-flash-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.6 to 22.1.
- Step 3.5 Flash has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 33.2 | 42.3 |
| Rank | 246 | 116 |
| Context | — | 256K |
| Input $/M | — | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | — | $0.30 |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 34.4 (#236)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1261 | 1436 |
| WeirdML | 24.9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 43.5% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 55.1% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 75.6% | — |
| MBPP+ | 67.5% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 26.6 (#102)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| BALROG | 14.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 21.7 (#215)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1257 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| DTBench | 53.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 129.36 | — |
| ForecastBench | 53.9 | — |
| PIQA | 87.5% | — |

## Math

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 22.1 (#281)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1269 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.3% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 30.4% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 61.9% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 0% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 26.2 (#260)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1233 | 1421 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 67.8% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 43.7% | — |
| BoolQ | 85.8% | — |
| MMLU | 77.9% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 36.0 (#81)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1141 | — |
| Video-MME | 70.3% | — |
| GeoBench | 76% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 42.9 (#189)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1278 | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1295 | 1447 |
| LMArena French | 1258 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1262 | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1252 | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | 1221 | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | 1288 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1243 | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 66.8 (#205)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1258 | 1385 |
| IFEval | 83.1% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 39.0 (#187)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1284 | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024): 48.7 (#196)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

| Benchmark | Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1287 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1285 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1253 | 1405 |
| WildBench | 79.2% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 33.2 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 34.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) and Step 3.5 Flash share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024) has 42 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.
