# Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite vs Step 3

> Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 37.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-2-0-flash-lite-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite scores higher in 1 category and Step 3 in 8 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 3 leads 27.6 to 21.2.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 37.3 | 39.9 |
| Rank | 189 | 145 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 37.4 (#181)
- Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1322 | 1367 |
| LiveBench Coding | 47.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 21.2 (#203)
- Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1324 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 50.1% | — |
| DTBench | 52.5% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 65.5% | — |
| ForecastBench | 57.1 | — |
| LiveBench | 54.3% | — |

## Math

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 31.8 (#192)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1309 | 1366 |
| Omni-MATH | 37.4% | — |
| LiveBench Math | 58.1% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 34.6 (#185)
- Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1305 | 1333 |
| MMLU-Pro | 72% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 50% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 30.6 (#103)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1100 | 1176 |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 46.2 (#156)
- Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1323 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1339 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1306 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1325 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1328 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1313 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1346 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1302 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 70.6 (#158)
- Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1305 | 1332 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 78.3% | — |
| IFEval | 82.4% | — |

## Long Context

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 40.1 (#155)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1321 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite: 51.9 (#172)
- Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1330 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1319 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1307 | 1340 |
| WildBench | 79% | — |
| LiveBench Language | 34.3% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 37.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 37.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite and Step 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.