# Qwen2.5-Coder-32B vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 32.9 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen2-5-coder-32b-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 12

## Summary

- They share 12 benchmarks with published results for both. Qwen2.5-Coder-32B scores higher in 0 categories and Step 3.5 Flash in 8 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 41.7 to 22.4.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.66 / $1 for Qwen2.5-Coder-32B.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 33K.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 32.9 | 41.7 |
| Rank | 239 | 116 |
| Context | 33K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.66 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $1 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 22.4 (#328)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1276 | 1436 |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | 9% | — |
| Aider Polyglot | 16.4% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | 49% | — |
| LiveBench Coding | 56.9% | — |
| BigCodeBench Complete | 58% | — |
| HumanEval+ | 87.2% | — |
| MBPP+ | 77% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 20.4 (#220)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1251 | 1411 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| LiveBench Reasoning | 42.1% | — |
| LiveBench Data Analysis | 49.9% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 119.41 | — |
| HellaSwag | 83% | — |
| LiveBench | 46.2% | — |
| WinoGrande | 80.8% | — |

## Math

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 30.8 (#203)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1251 | 1408 |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| LiveBench Math | 46.6% | — |
| GSM8K | 93% | — |

## Knowledge

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 32.9 (#200)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1221 | 1422 |
| ARC (AI2) Challenge | 70.5% | — |
| MMLU | 79.1% | — |

## Multilingual

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 38.0 (#230)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1205 | 1386 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1222 | 1448 |
| LMArena Russian | 1228 | 1385 |
| LMArena French | — | 1421 |
| LMArena German | — | 1404 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1353 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1350 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1419 |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 61.6 (#240)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1223 | 1385 |
| LiveBench Instruction Following | 58.7% | — |

## Long Context

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 37.9 (#204)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1251 | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen2.5-Coder-32B: 41.8 (#235)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Qwen2.5-Coder-32B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1230 | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1174 | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1222 | 1405 |
| LiveBench Language | 23.3% | — |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen2.5-Coder-32B better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 32.9 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen2.5-Coder-32B 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-Coder-32B lists at $0.66 and $1.

### Is Qwen2.5-Coder-32B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.7 versus 22.4 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Step 3.5 Flash does, with 256K tokens against 33K.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen2.5-Coder-32B and Step 3.5 Flash share?

12 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen2.5-Coder-32B has 31 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.
