# Qwen Plus vs Step 3

> Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen-plus-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-12
- Shared benchmarks: 13

## Summary

- They share 13 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen Plus scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3 in 8 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3 leads 37.6 to 23.3.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 37.1 | 40.5 |
| Rank | 210 | 149 |
| Context | 1M | — |
| Input $/M | $0.40 | — |
| Output $/M | $1.20 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167)
- Step 3: 40.1 (#147)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1328 | 1367 |

## Reasoning

- Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107)
- Step 3: 28.4 (#105)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 63.3% | 62.3% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1317 | 1355 |
| DTBench | 81.1% | — |
| LMCA | 24% | — |

## Math

- Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271)
- Step 3: 37.6 (#148)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1326 | 1366 |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 17.8% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | 65.3% | — |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | 1.7% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251)
- Step 3: 36.8 (#164)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1328 | 1333 |
| GPQA Diamond | 48.1% | — |

## Multimodal

- Qwen Plus: —
- Step 3: 35.5 (#86)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1177 |

## Multilingual

- Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175)
- Step 3: 46.3 (#159)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1310 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1347 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1323 | 1331 |
| LMArena German | — | 1371 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1251 | — |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1269 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1371 |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181)
- Step 3: 70.4 (#164)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1303 | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158)
- Step 3: 40.3 (#157)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1324 | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176)
- Step 3: 54.3 (#151)

| Benchmark | Qwen Plus | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1326 | 1350 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1293 | 1321 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1336 | 1341 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen Plus better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 40.5 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Qwen Plus or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 40.1 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen Plus and Step 3 share?

13 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen Plus has 20 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.