Step 3.5 Flash vs Mistral 8x7B v0.2

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 32. 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 reasoning, where it averages 78.3 against 35.2. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 25.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 32K for Mistral 8x7B v0.2.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mistral 8x7B v0.2 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

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

27.9

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
24
66
BrowseComp
34
54
OSWorld-Verified
28

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

13.3

77
HumanEval
21
48
SWE-bench Verified
16
45
LiveCodeBench
12
49
SWE-bench Pro
14

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

32.3

64
MMMU-Pro
26
70
OfficeQA Pro
40

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

35.2

82
SimpleQA
27
82
MuSR
25
83
BBH
62
74
LongBench v2
39
73
MRCRv2
38

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

28.9

84
MMLU
29
83
GPQA
28
81
SuperGPQA
26
79
OpenBookQA
24
76
MMLU-Pro
52
12
HLE
3
71
FrontierScience
35

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

67

87
IFEval
67

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

58.8

86
MGSM
62
81
MMLU-ProX
57

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Mistral 8x7B v0.2

42

85
AIME 2023
29
87
AIME 2024
31
86
AIME 2025
30
81
HMMT Feb 2023
25
83
HMMT Feb 2024
27
82
HMMT Feb 2025
26
84
BRUMO 2025
28
85
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 32. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 25.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 28.9. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 13.3. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 42. 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 Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 35.2. 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 Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 27.9. 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 Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 32.3. 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 Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 67. 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 Mistral 8x7B v0.2?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 58.8. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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