Step 3.5 Flash vs MiniMax M1 80k

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 35. 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 44.9. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 32.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 80K for MiniMax M1 80k.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. MiniMax M1 80k 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

MiniMax M1 80k

32.1

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
30
66
BrowseComp
37
54
OSWorld-Verified
31

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

MiniMax M1 80k

13.8

77
HumanEval
28
48
SWE-bench Verified
16
45
LiveCodeBench
10
49
SWE-bench Pro
17

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

MiniMax M1 80k

39

64
MMMU-Pro
34
70
OfficeQA Pro
45

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

MiniMax M1 80k

41.7

82
SimpleQA
34
82
MuSR
32
83
BBH
64
74
LongBench v2
45
73
MRCRv2
46

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

MiniMax M1 80k

31.3

84
MMLU
36
83
GPQA
35
81
SuperGPQA
33
79
OpenBookQA
31
76
MMLU-Pro
51
12
HLE
2
71
FrontierScience
39

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

MiniMax M1 80k

68

87
IFEval
68

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

MiniMax M1 80k

59.1

86
MGSM
63
81
MMLU-ProX
57

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

MiniMax M1 80k

44.9

85
AIME 2023
36
87
AIME 2024
38
86
AIME 2025
37
81
HMMT Feb 2023
32
83
HMMT Feb 2024
34
82
HMMT Feb 2025
33
84
BRUMO 2025
35
85
MATH-500
57

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 35. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 32.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 31.3. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 13.8. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 44.9. 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 MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 41.7. 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 MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 32.1. 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, Step 3.5 Flash or MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 39. 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 MiniMax M1 80k?

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 MiniMax M1 80k?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 59.1. Inside this category, MMLU-ProX is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

Weekly LLM Benchmark Digest

Get notified when new models drop, benchmark scores change, or the leaderboard shifts. One email per week.

Free. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We only store derived location metadata for consent routing.