Step 3.5 Flash vs Nova Pro

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 38. 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 48.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is MuSR, 82 to 37.

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

Quick Verdict

Pick Step 3.5 Flash if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Nova Pro 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

Nova Pro

33.3

62
Terminal-Bench 2.0
31
66
BrowseComp
39
54
OSWorld-Verified
32

Coding

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

47.1

Nova Pro

17.2

77
HumanEval
33
48
SWE-bench Verified
19
45
LiveCodeBench
14
49
SWE-bench Pro
20

Multimodal & Grounded

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

66.7

Nova Pro

41.1

64
MMMU-Pro
37
70
OfficeQA Pro
46

Reasoning

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

78.3

Nova Pro

46.3

82
SimpleQA
39
82
MuSR
37
83
BBH
63
74
LongBench v2
51
73
MRCRv2
51

Knowledge

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

60.8

Nova Pro

34.2

84
MMLU
41
83
GPQA
40
81
SuperGPQA
38
79
OpenBookQA
36
76
MMLU-Pro
53
12
HLE
4
71
FrontierScience
41

Instruction Following

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

87

Nova Pro

66

87
IFEval
66

Multilingual

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

82.8

Nova Pro

60.4

86
MGSM
61
81
MMLU-ProX
60

Mathematics

Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash

84.5

Nova Pro

48.6

85
AIME 2023
41
87
AIME 2024
43
86
AIME 2025
42
81
HMMT Feb 2023
37
83
HMMT Feb 2024
39
82
HMMT Feb 2025
38
84
BRUMO 2025
40
85
MATH-500
59

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Step 3.5 Flash or Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash is ahead overall, 66 to 38. The biggest single separator in this matchup is MuSR, where the scores are 82 and 37.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Step 3.5 Flash or Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 34.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Step 3.5 Flash or Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 47.1 versus 17.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, Step 3.5 Flash or Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 84.5 versus 48.6. 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 Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 78.3 versus 46.3. 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 Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.2 versus 33.3. 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 Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.7 versus 41.1. 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 Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 87 versus 66. 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 Nova Pro?

Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 82.8 versus 60.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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