Step 3.5 Flash vs Llama 4 Maverick

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 43. 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 51.3. 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 $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Llama 4 Maverick. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Llama 4 Maverick gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Step 3.5 Flash.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Llama 4 Maverick only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you need the larger 1M context window.

Agentic

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

Llama 4 Maverick

40.9

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
37
66
BrowseComp
51
54
OSWorld-Verified
38

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Llama 4 Maverick

15.7

77
HumanEval
38
48
SWE-bench Verified
13
45
LiveCodeBench
15
49
SWE-bench Pro
17

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Llama 4 Maverick

56.8

64
MMMU-Pro
59
70
OfficeQA Pro
54

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Llama 4 Maverick

54

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

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Llama 4 Maverick

36.5

84
MMLU
46
83
GPQA
45
81
SuperGPQA
43
79
OpenBookQA
41
76
MMLU-Pro
53
12
HLE
4
71
FrontierScience
45

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Llama 4 Maverick

68

87
IFEval
68

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Llama 4 Maverick

59.8

86
MGSM
63
81
MMLU-ProX
58

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Llama 4 Maverick

51.3

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
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 43. 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 Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 36.5. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 15.7. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

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

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 51.3. 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 Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 54. 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 Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 40.9. 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 Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 56.8. Inside this category, OfficeQA Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, Step 3.5 Flash or Llama 4 Maverick?

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 Llama 4 Maverick?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 59.8. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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