Step 3.5 Flash vs Moonshot v1

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 47. 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 61. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 49.

Step 3.5 Flash gives you the larger context window at 256K, compared with 128K for Moonshot v1.

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Moonshot v1 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

Moonshot v1

42.2

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
39
66
BrowseComp
49
54
OSWorld-Verified
41

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Moonshot v1

26.4

77
HumanEval
45
48
SWE-bench Verified
34
45
LiveCodeBench
21
49
SWE-bench Pro
30

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Moonshot v1

52.6

64
MMMU-Pro
49
70
OfficeQA Pro
57

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Moonshot v1

55.5

82
SimpleQA
51
82
MuSR
49
83
BBH
73
74
LongBench v2
58
73
MRCRv2
56

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Moonshot v1

42.3

84
MMLU
53
83
GPQA
52
81
SuperGPQA
50
79
OpenBookQA
48
76
MMLU-Pro
64
12
HLE
5
71
FrontierScience
49

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Moonshot v1

77

87
IFEval
77

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Moonshot v1

69.8

86
MGSM
73
81
MMLU-ProX
68

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Moonshot v1

61

85
AIME 2023
53
87
AIME 2024
55
86
AIME 2025
54
81
HMMT Feb 2023
49
83
HMMT Feb 2024
51
82
HMMT Feb 2025
50
84
BRUMO 2025
52
85
MATH-500
72

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 47. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 49.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 42.3. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 26.4. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 61. 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 Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 55.5. 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 Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 42.2. 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 Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 52.6. 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 Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 77. 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 Moonshot v1?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 69.8. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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