# Qwen3.5-9B vs Step 3

> Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-5-9b-vs-step-3
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 36.2.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 33.3 | 39.9 |
| Rank | 235 | 145 |
| Context | 262K | — |
| Input $/M | $0.10 | — |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | — |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen3.5-9B: 35.3 (#213)
- Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 27.5% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1367 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3.5-9B: 14.4 (#143)
- Step 3: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 9.2% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3.5-9B: 22.5 (#178)
- Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
| CritPt | 0.3% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 12% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1355 |
| DTBench | 71.2% | — |
| LMCA | 24.5% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 139.45 | — |

## Math

- Qwen3.5-9B: 33.5 (#174)
- Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | 48.5% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 61.7% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1366 |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#77)
- Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 79% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1333 |

## Multimodal

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1176 |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | — | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1396 |
| LMArena German | — | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1372 |

## Instruction Following

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1332 |

## Long Context

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1326 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3.5-9B: —
- Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

| Benchmark | Qwen3.5-9B | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1340 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Qwen3.5-9B or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

### How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-9B and Step 3 share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-9B has 10 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.