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 36. 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 47.8. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MMLU, 84 to 30.
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 Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning). That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) is the reasoning model in the pair, while Step 3.5 Flash is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning).
Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning) only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile.
Step 3.5 Flash
60.2
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
38.5
Step 3.5 Flash
47.1
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
15.2
Step 3.5 Flash
66.7
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
33.4
Step 3.5 Flash
78.3
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
42.1
Step 3.5 Flash
60.8
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
30
Step 3.5 Flash
87
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
70
Step 3.5 Flash
82.8
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
61.7
Step 3.5 Flash
84.5
Ministral 3 8B (Reasoning)
47.8
Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 36. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MMLU, where the scores are 84 and 30.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 30. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 15.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 47.8. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 42.1. Inside this category, SimpleQA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 38.5. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 33.4. Inside this category, MMMU-Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 70. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 61.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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