Step 3.5 Flash vs GPT-OSS 120B

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

Step 3.5 Flash is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 66 to 48. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Step 3.5 Flash's sharpest advantage is in mathematics, where it averages 84.5 against 59.5. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 47.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for GPT-OSS 120B.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GPT-OSS 120B only becomes the better choice if its workflow or ecosystem matters more than the raw scoreboard.

Agentic

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

GPT-OSS 120B

44.8

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
43
66
BrowseComp
50
54
OSWorld-Verified
43

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

GPT-OSS 120B

28.1

77
HumanEval
43
48
SWE-bench Verified
29
45
LiveCodeBench
25
49
SWE-bench Pro
31

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

GPT-OSS 120B

48.8

64
MMMU-Pro
42
70
OfficeQA Pro
57

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

GPT-OSS 120B

55.2

82
SimpleQA
49
82
MuSR
47
83
BBH
73
74
LongBench v2
58
73
MRCRv2
59

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

GPT-OSS 120B

41.5

84
MMLU
51
83
GPQA
50
81
SuperGPQA
48
79
OpenBookQA
46
76
MMLU-Pro
63
12
HLE
5
71
FrontierScience
49

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

GPT-OSS 120B

79

87
IFEval
79

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

GPT-OSS 120B

70.7

86
MGSM
72
81
MMLU-ProX
70

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

GPT-OSS 120B

59.5

85
AIME 2023
51
87
AIME 2024
53
86
AIME 2025
52
81
HMMT Feb 2023
47
83
HMMT Feb 2024
49
82
HMMT Feb 2025
48
84
BRUMO 2025
50
85
MATH-500
71

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 48. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 47.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 41.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 28.1. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 59.5. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 55.2. Inside this category, MuSR is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 44.8. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 48.8. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 79. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or GPT-OSS 120B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 70.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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