Step 3.5 Flash vs Kimi K2

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 34. 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 42.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 28.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Kimi K2.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Kimi K2 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

Kimi K2

29.3

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
27
66
BrowseComp
36
54
OSWorld-Verified
27

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Kimi K2

12.8

77
HumanEval
24
48
SWE-bench Verified
15
45
LiveCodeBench
12
49
SWE-bench Pro
13

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Kimi K2

39.5

64
MMMU-Pro
35
70
OfficeQA Pro
45

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Kimi K2

40.9

82
SimpleQA
30
82
MuSR
28
83
BBH
61
74
LongBench v2
47
73
MRCRv2
50

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Kimi K2

29.3

84
MMLU
32
83
GPQA
31
81
SuperGPQA
29
79
OpenBookQA
27
76
MMLU-Pro
51
12
HLE
3
71
FrontierScience
34

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Kimi K2

67

87
IFEval
67

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Kimi K2

59.7

86
MGSM
61
81
MMLU-ProX
59

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Kimi K2

42.7

85
AIME 2023
32
87
AIME 2024
34
86
AIME 2025
33
81
HMMT Feb 2023
28
83
HMMT Feb 2024
30
82
HMMT Feb 2025
29
84
BRUMO 2025
31
85
MATH-500
57

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 34. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 28.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 29.3. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 12.8. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 42.7. 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 Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 40.9. 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 Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 29.3. 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 Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 39.5. 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 Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 67. 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 Kimi K2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 59.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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