# Grok 4.1 Fast vs Step 3

> Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.9 to 39.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/grok-4-1-fast-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 16

## Summary

- They share 16 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.1 Fast scores higher in 6 categories and Step 3 in 3 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Grok 4.1 Fast leads 42.3 to 27.6.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 40.9 | 39.9 |
| Rank | 131 | 145 |
| Context | 128K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.20 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.50 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 33.8 (#236)
- Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1411 | 1367 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1241 | — |
| ALE-Bench | 394.93 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.1 (#35)
- Step 3: —

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 69.6% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | 13.1% | — |
| LMArena Search | 1171 | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 1,107 | — |

## Reasoning

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 42.3 (#45)
- Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1407 | 1355 |
| SimpleBench | 56% | — |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 87.4% | — |
| DTBench | 87.7% | — |
| ForecastBench | 61 | — |

## Math

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 30.9 (#201)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1408 | 1366 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 60.9% | — |
| ProofBench | 4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 32.6 (#203)
- Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1398 | 1333 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 17.8% | — |

## Multimodal

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 36.3 (#71)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | 1201 | 1176 |

## Multilingual

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 51.1 (#110)
- Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1391 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1441 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1404 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1361 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1387 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1411 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1416 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1347 | — |

## Instruction Following

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 72.8 (#127)
- Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1376 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 42.4 (#121)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1390 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Grok 4.1 Fast: 57.4 (#126)
- Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 Fast | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1408 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1394 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1389 | 1340 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1327 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Grok 4.1 Fast better than Step 3?

Grok 4.1 Fast is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.9 to 39.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Grok 4.1 Fast or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 33.8 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Grok 4.1 Fast and Step 3 share?

16 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.1 Fast has 32 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.