Step 3.5 Flash vs LFM2-24B-A2B

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 38. 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 50.4. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 42.

Step 3.5 Flash is also the more expensive model on tokens at $0.10 input / $0.30 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.03 input / $0.12 output per 1M tokens for LFM2-24B-A2B. That is roughly 2.5x on output cost alone. Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 32K for LFM2-24B-A2B.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. LFM2-24B-A2B only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

LFM2-24B-A2B

33.4

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
30
66
BrowseComp
38
54
OSWorld-Verified
34

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

LFM2-24B-A2B

18

77
HumanEval
42
48
SWE-bench Verified
18
45
LiveCodeBench
17
49
SWE-bench Pro
19

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

LFM2-24B-A2B

41.7

64
MMMU-Pro
39
70
OfficeQA Pro
45

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

LFM2-24B-A2B

46.6

82
SimpleQA
44
82
MuSR
42
83
BBH
63
74
LongBench v2
48
73
MRCRv2
45

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

LFM2-24B-A2B

35.6

84
MMLU
46
83
GPQA
45
81
SuperGPQA
43
79
OpenBookQA
41
76
MMLU-Pro
51
12
HLE
4
71
FrontierScience
43

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

LFM2-24B-A2B

68

87
IFEval
68

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

LFM2-24B-A2B

61.4

86
MGSM
64
81
MMLU-ProX
60

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

LFM2-24B-A2B

50.4

85
AIME 2023
46
87
AIME 2024
48
86
AIME 2025
47
81
HMMT Feb 2023
42
83
HMMT Feb 2024
44
82
HMMT Feb 2025
43
84
BRUMO 2025
45
85
MATH-500
57

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 38. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 42.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 35.6. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 18. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 50.4. 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 LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 46.6. 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 LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 33.4. 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 LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 41.7. 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 LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 68. 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 LFM2-24B-A2B?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 61.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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