# Mistral Small 3 vs Step 3

> Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mistral-small-3-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 14

## Summary

- They share 14 benchmarks with published results for both. Mistral Small 3 scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3 in 8 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Step 3 leads 54.3 to 32.2.

## Snapshot

| | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Mistral AI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 31.2 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 278 | 149 |
| Context | 33K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.08 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Mistral Small 3: 36.5 (#207)
- Step 3: 40.1 (#147)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1246 | 1367 |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 45.3% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 50.4% | — |

## Reasoning

- Mistral Small 3: 18.9 (#273)
- Step 3: 28.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1233 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 127.07 | — |

## Math

- Mistral Small 3: 16.3 (#295)
- Step 3: 37.6 (#148)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1240 | 1366 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 6.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Mistral Small 3: 25.1 (#263)
- Step 3: 36.8 (#164)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1202 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 47.3% | — |
| Confabulations | 25.2% | — |

## Multimodal

- Mistral Small 3: —
- Step 3: 35.5 (#86)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1177 |

## Multilingual

- Mistral Small 3: 37.3 (#236)
- Step 3: 46.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1198 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1204 | 1397 |
| LMArena German | 1211 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1188 | 1269 |
| LMArena Russian | 1216 | 1331 |
| LMArena French | 1203 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1111 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1371 |

## Instruction Following

- Mistral Small 3: 63.7 (#229)
- Step 3: 70.4 (#164)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1214 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Mistral Small 3: 37.8 (#211)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1246 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mistral Small 3: 32.2 (#280)
- Step 3: 54.3 (#151)

| Benchmark | Mistral Small 3 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1234 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1195 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1217 | 1341 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 707 | — |

## FAQ

### Is Mistral Small 3 better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 31.2 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Mistral Small 3 or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 36.5 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Mistral Small 3 and Step 3 share?

14 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mistral Small 3 has 24 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.