# Gemini 3.5 Flash vs Step 3

> Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-5-flash-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher in 9 categories and Step 3 in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Gemini 3.5 Flash leads 62.8 to 28.4.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 54.2 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 32 | 149 |
| Context | 1.05M | — |
| Input $/M | $1.50 | — |
| Output $/M | $9 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 49.4 (#49)
- Step 3: 40.1 (#147)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1492 | 1367 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 79.3% | — |
| DeepSWE | 37.4% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1499 | — |
| SciCode | 53.1% | — |
| WeirdML | 62.6% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 911.02 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 24.7 (#114)
- Step 3: —

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 27.5% | — |
| GBAEval | 6.7% | — |
| GDP.pdf | 14% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 5,396 | — |

## Reasoning

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 62.8 (#18)
- Step 3: 28.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1488 | 1355 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 72.1% | — |
| SimpleBench | 76.7% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 92.6% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | 92.5% | — |
| CritPt | 13.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 50% | — |
| EnigmaEval | 25.4% | — |
| EBR-Bench | 4.8% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 32% | — |
| DTBench | 94.7% | — |
| LMCA | 47.1% | — |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 58.1% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 154.46 | — |
| ForecastBench | 59 | — |

## Math

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 60.7 (#36)
- Step 3: 37.6 (#148)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1504 | 1366 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 62.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 26.8% | — |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 76.3% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 95.6% | — |
| ProofBench | 31% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 39% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1) | 14.6% | — |

## Knowledge

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 66.3 (#11)
- Step 3: 36.8 (#164)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1495 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 92.8% | — |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.7 (#15)
- Step 3: 35.5 (#86)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1310 | 1177 |
| Blueprint-Bench 2 | 33.6% | — |
| LMArena Document | 1463 | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 57.0 (#13)
- Step 3: 46.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1476 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1526 | 1397 |
| LMArena German | 1492 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1451 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1493 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1480 | 1371 |
| LMArena French | 1490 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1486 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 77.0 (#30)
- Step 3: 70.4 (#164)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1467 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 45.4 (#38)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1482 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemini 3.5 Flash: 65.5 (#47)
- Step 3: 54.3 (#151)

| Benchmark | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1482 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1470 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1481 | 1341 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | 1087 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash better than Step 3?

Gemini 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.2 to 40.5 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Gemini 3.5 Flash or Step 3 better for coding?

Gemini 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.4 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash and Step 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash has 54 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.