# Qwen2.5 7B Instruct vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen2-5-7b-instruct-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in math, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 40.6 to 11.8.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.17 / $0.70 for Qwen2.5 7B Instruct.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 28.6 | 41.7 |
| Rank | 314 | 116 |
| Context | 131K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.17 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.70 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 35.9 (#204)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 37.6% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 46.1% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 23.5 (#117)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| BALROG | 7.8% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 14.3 (#317)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |
| DTBench | 47.7% | — |
| LMCA | 6.4% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 118.44 | — |

## Math

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 11.8 (#300)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 2.5% | — |
| Omni-MATH | 29.4% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |

## Knowledge

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 17.0 (#281)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 35.5% | — |
| MMLU-Pro | 53.9% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 34.1% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1422 |
| MMLU | 72.9% | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | 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

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 63.4 (#226)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| IFEval | 74.1% | — |
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |

## Long Context

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen2.5 7B Instruct: 48.8 (#194)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5 7B Instruct | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| WildBench | 73.1% | — |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 28.6 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens; Qwen2.5 7B Instruct lists at $0.17 and $0.70.

### Is Qwen2.5 7B Instruct or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.7 versus 35.9 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen2.5 7B Instruct and Step 3.5 Flash share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5 7B Instruct has 15 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.