Grok 4 vs Step 3.5 Flash

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

Grok 4 and Step 3.5 Flash finish on the same overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Grok 4.

Quick Verdict

Treat this as a split decision. Grok 4 makes more sense if multimodal & grounded is the priority; Step 3.5 Flash is the better fit if instruction following is the priority or you need the larger 256K context window.

Agentic

Step 3.5 Flash

Grok 4

58.1

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

57
Terminal-Bench 2.0
62
63
BrowseComp
66
56
OSWorld-Verified
54

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Grok 4

43.1

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

79
HumanEval
77
48
SWE-bench Verified
48
37
LiveCodeBench
45
48
SWE-bench Pro
49

Multimodal & Grounded

Grok 4

Grok 4

78.2

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

80
MMMU-Pro
64
76
OfficeQA Pro
70

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Grok 4

77.4

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

83
SimpleQA
82
81
MuSR
82
83
BBH
83
72
LongBench v2
74
71
MRCRv2
73

Knowledge

Grok 4

Grok 4

63.8

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

87
MMLU
84
86
GPQA
83
84
SuperGPQA
81
82
OpenBookQA
79
77
MMLU-Pro
76
16
HLE
12
75
FrontierScience
71

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Grok 4

82

Step 3.5 Flash

87

82
IFEval
87

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Grok 4

80.8

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

84
MGSM
86
79
MMLU-ProX
81

Mathematics

Grok 4

Grok 4

85.1

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

87
AIME 2023
85
89
AIME 2024
87
88
AIME 2025
86
84
HMMT Feb 2023
81
86
HMMT Feb 2024
83
85
HMMT Feb 2025
82
87
BRUMO 2025
84
83
MATH-500
85

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4 and Step 3.5 Flash are tied on overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 63.8 versus 60.8. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 43.1. Inside this category, LiveCodeBench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4 has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 85.1 versus 84.5. Inside this category, HMMT Feb 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 77.4. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 58.1. 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, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Grok 4 has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 78.2 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 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 82. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, Grok 4 or Step 3.5 Flash?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 80.8. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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