# Granite 4.0 Micro vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/granite-4-0-micro-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-11
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 42.6 to 12.0.
- Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper at $0.017 / $0.11 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.30 for Step 3.5 Flash.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | IBM | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 29.0 | 42.3 |
| Rank | 318 | 116 |
| Context | 131K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.017 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.11 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |

## Reasoning

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 19.2 (#265)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 22.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |

## Math

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 12.0 (#307)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.6 (#84)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.8% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 20.9% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |

## Knowledge

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 9.9 (#304)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.6 (#132)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 28.3% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 39.5% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 30.7% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1421 |

## Multilingual

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.5 (#119)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1447 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1405 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1354 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1352 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 69.9 (#169)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.1 (#124)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 84.9% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |

## Long Context

- Granite 4.0 Micro: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#117)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Granite 4.0 Micro: 46.7 (#216)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 58.8 (#113)

| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| WildBench | 67% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |

## FAQ

### Is Granite 4.0 Micro better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 29.0 on the Noometry Index. Granite 4.0 Micro costs 3.7× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Step 3.5 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Step 3.5 Flash?

Granite 4.0 Micro is cheaper. It lists at $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.11 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.

### Which has the bigger context window?

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

### How many benchmarks do Granite 4.0 Micro and Step 3.5 Flash share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Granite 4.0 Micro has 8 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.