Grok 4.1 vs Step 3.5 Flash

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

Grok 4.1 is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 84 to 66. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Grok 4.1's sharpest advantage is in multimodal & grounded, where it averages 93.2 against 66.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMMU-Pro, 95 to 64.

Grok 4.1 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.10 input / $0.30 output per 1M tokens for Step 3.5 Flash. That is roughly 50.0x on output cost alone. Grok 4.1 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Step 3.5 Flash.

Quick Verdict

Pick Grok 4.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Step 3.5 Flash only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

76.9

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

79
Terminal-Bench 2.0
62
79
BrowseComp
66
73
OSWorld-Verified
54

Coding

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

73.4

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

91
HumanEval
77
77
SWE-bench Verified
48
73
LiveCodeBench
45
73
SWE-bench Pro
49

Multimodal & Grounded

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

93.2

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

95
MMMU-Pro
64
91
OfficeQA Pro
70

Reasoning

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

91.9

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

95
SimpleQA
82
93
MuSR
82
93
BBH
83
90
LongBench v2
74
89
MRCRv2
73

Knowledge

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

79.5

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

99
MMLU
84
97
GPQA
83
95
SuperGPQA
81
93
OpenBookQA
79
90
MMLU-Pro
76
40
HLE
12
91
FrontierScience
71

Instruction Following

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

93

Step 3.5 Flash

87

93
IFEval
87

Multilingual

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

92.8

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

96
MGSM
86
91
MMLU-ProX
81

Mathematics

Grok 4.1

Grok 4.1

96.8

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

99
AIME 2023
85
99
AIME 2024
87
98
AIME 2025
86
95
HMMT Feb 2023
81
97
HMMT Feb 2024
83
96
HMMT Feb 2025
82
96
BRUMO 2025
84
97
MATH-500
85

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 is ahead overall, 84 to 66. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMMU-Pro, where the scores are 95 and 64.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.5 versus 60.8. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 73.4 versus 47.1. Inside this category, SWE-bench Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 96.8 versus 84.5. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 91.9 versus 78.3. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 76.9 versus 60.2. Inside this category, OSWorld-Verified is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 93.2 versus 66.7. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 93 versus 87. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Grok 4.1 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4.1 has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 92.8 versus 82.8. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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