Step 3.5 Flash vs Llama 4 Scout

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 42. 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 coding, where it averages 47.1 against 12.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 43.

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 Scout. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Llama 4 Scout gives you the larger context window at 10M, compared with 256K for Step 3.5 Flash.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Llama 4 Scout only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you need the larger 10M context window.

Agentic

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.2

Llama 4 Scout

40.6

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
66
BrowseComp
48
54
OSWorld-Verified
37

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Llama 4 Scout

12.9

77
HumanEval
39
48
SWE-bench Verified
12
45
LiveCodeBench
11
49
SWE-bench Pro
15

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Llama 4 Scout

57.8

64
MMMU-Pro
60
70
OfficeQA Pro
55

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Llama 4 Scout

55

82
SimpleQA
45
82
MuSR
43
83
BBH
60
74
LongBench v2
64
73
MRCRv2
66

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Llama 4 Scout

35.6

84
MMLU
47
83
GPQA
46
81
SuperGPQA
44
79
OpenBookQA
42
76
MMLU-Pro
51
12
HLE
2
71
FrontierScience
44

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Llama 4 Scout

68

87
IFEval
68

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Llama 4 Scout

59.8

86
MGSM
63
81
MMLU-ProX
58

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Llama 4 Scout

51

85
AIME 2023
47
87
AIME 2024
49
86
AIME 2025
48
81
HMMT Feb 2023
43
83
HMMT Feb 2024
45
82
HMMT Feb 2025
44
84
BRUMO 2025
46
85
MATH-500
57

Frequently Asked Questions

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

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 42. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 43.

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

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 Llama 4 Scout?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 12.9. 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 Scout?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 51. 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 Scout?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 55. 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 Scout?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 40.6. 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 Scout?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 57.8. 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 Scout?

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 Scout?

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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