# Qwen3 8B vs Step 3.5 Flash

> Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/qwen3-8b-vs-step-3-5-flash
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 0

## Summary

- The widest gap is in coding, where Step 3.5 Flash leads 41.7 to 33.4.
- Step 3.5 Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens, against $0.18 / $0.70 for Qwen3 8B.
- Step 3.5 Flash accepts more context: 256K tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Alibaba (Qwen) | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 33.3 | 41.7 |
| Rank | 237 | 116 |
| Context | 131K | 256K |
| Input $/M | $0.18 | $0.10 |
| Output $/M | $0.70 | $0.30 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Qwen3 8B: 33.4 (#245)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 41.7 (#106)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 22.6% | — |
| LMArena Coding | — | 1436 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Qwen3 8B: 29.9 (#71)
- Step 3.5 Flash: —

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 42.6% | — |

## Reasoning

- Qwen3 8B: 16.1 (#299)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 21.2 (#202)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 28.4% |
| CritPt | 0% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 5% | — |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | — | 1411 |
| DTBench | 59.7% | — |
| LMCA | 8.8% | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 136.17 | — |

## Math

- Qwen3 8B: 33.3 (#176)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 40.6 (#77)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 66.8% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 56.1% | — |
| LMArena Math | — | 1408 |

## Knowledge

- Qwen3 8B: 36.1 (#164)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 39.0 (#127)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 56.8% | — |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.8% | — |
| LMArena Expert | — | 1422 |

## Multilingual

- Qwen3 8B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 50.7 (#115)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | 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

- Qwen3 8B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 73.3 (#119)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | — | 1385 |

## Long Context

- Qwen3 8B: 37.8 (#205)
- Step 3.5 Flash: 42.8 (#112)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Fiction.LiveBench | 62.1% | — |
| LMArena Longer Query | — | 1402 |

## Writing & Preference

- Qwen3 8B: —
- Step 3.5 Flash: 59.0 (#108)

| Benchmark | Qwen3 8B | Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | — | 1403 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | — | 1357 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | — | 1405 |

## FAQ

### Is Qwen3 8B better than Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.7 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Which is cheaper, Qwen3 8B 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; Qwen3 8B lists at $0.18 and $0.70.

### Is Qwen3 8B or Step 3.5 Flash better for coding?

Step 3.5 Flash scores higher on coding benchmarks: 41.7 versus 33.4 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 Qwen3 8B and Step 3.5 Flash share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3 8B has 11 scored results on Noometry and Step 3.5 Flash has 19.