# Llama 3.1-8B vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 2.6× 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/llama-3-1-8b-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 17

## Summary

- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1-8B scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 40.6 to 9.5.
- Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.08 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 128K.

## Snapshot

| | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 22.8 | 41.7 |
| Rank | 347 | 116 |
| Context | 128K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Llama 3.1-8B: 19.9 (#335)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1195 | 1436 |
| SciCode | 13.2% | — |
| WeirdML | 1.7% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 32.8% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 40.5% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 62.8% | — |
| MBPP+ | 55.6% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Llama 3.1-8B: 22.3 (#123)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 25.8% | — |
| BALROG | 15.1% | — |

## Reasoning

- Llama 3.1-8B: 14.5 (#316)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1175 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| DTBench | 50.9% | — |
| LMCA | 5.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 116.48 | — |
| PIQA | 81.2% | — |

## Math

- Llama 3.1-8B: 9.5 (#311)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1179 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 1.7% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 13.7% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 22.9% | — |
| GSM8K | 82.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Llama 3.1-8B: 8.0 (#302)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1144 | 1422 |
| GPQA Diamond | 27% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 40.6% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 24.7% | — |
| BoolQ | 82.8% | — |
| MMLU | 56.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Llama 3.1-8B: 34.2 (#244)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1148 | 1386 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1151 | 1448 |
| LMArena French | 1176 | 1421 |
| LMArena German | 1144 | 1404 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1061 | 1353 |
| LMArena Korean | 1053 | 1350 |
| LMArena Russian | 1158 | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1169 | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Llama 3.1-8B: 59.1 (#253)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1159 | 1385 |
| IFEval | 74.3% | — |

## Long Context

- Llama 3.1-8B: 35.8 (#233)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1182 | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Llama 3.1-8B: 29.9 (#285)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Llama 3.1-8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1187 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1154 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1172 | 1405 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 713 | — |
| WildBench | 68.7% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Llama 3.1-8B better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 22.8 on the Noometry Index. Llama 3.1-8B costs 2.6× 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, Llama 3.1-8B or Step 3.5 Flash?

Llama 3.1-8B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.08 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.30.

### Is Llama 3.1-8B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.7 versus 19.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 128K.

### How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1-8B and Step 3.5 Flash share?

17 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1-8B has 43 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.