# Ministral 3B vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.8× 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/ministral-3b-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 39.0 to 10.4.
- Ministral 3B is cheaper at $0.04 / $0.04 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

| | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 25.6 | 41.7 |
| Rank | 336 | 116 |
| Context | 128K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.04 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.04 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Ministral 3B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |

## Reasoning

- Ministral 3B: 17.7 (#278)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |
| DTBench | 51.7% | — |
| LMCA | 5.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.08 | — |

## Math

- Ministral 3B: 24.5 (#257)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |
| MATH Level 5 | 14.4% | — |

## Knowledge

- Ministral 3B: 10.4 (#297)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 25.3% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 7.3% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1422 |

## Multilingual

- Ministral 3B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1386 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1448 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1404 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1353 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1350 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1385 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Ministral 3B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |

## Long Context

- Ministral 3B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Ministral 3B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Ministral 3B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |

## FAQ

### Is Ministral 3B better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 25.6 on the Noometry Index. Ministral 3B costs 3.8× 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, Ministral 3B or Step 3.5 Flash?

Ministral 3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.04 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 128K.

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

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Ministral 3B has 6 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.