Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.
Qwen2.5-1M and Step 3.5 Flash finish on the same overall score, so this is less about a single winner and more about where the edge shows up. The headline says tie; the benchmark table is where the real choice happens.
Qwen2.5-1M gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 256K for Step 3.5 Flash.
Treat this as a split decision. Qwen2.5-1M makes more sense if agentic is the priority or you need the larger 1M context window; Step 3.5 Flash is the better fit if instruction following is the priority.
Qwen2.5-1M
64.7
Step 3.5 Flash
60.2
Qwen2.5-1M
44.8
Step 3.5 Flash
47.1
Qwen2.5-1M
68.4
Step 3.5 Flash
66.7
Qwen2.5-1M
80.9
Step 3.5 Flash
78.3
Qwen2.5-1M
60.4
Step 3.5 Flash
60.8
Qwen2.5-1M
84
Step 3.5 Flash
87
Qwen2.5-1M
80.4
Step 3.5 Flash
82.8
Qwen2.5-1M
83.6
Step 3.5 Flash
84.5
Qwen2.5-1M and Step 3.5 Flash are tied on overall score, so the right pick depends on which category matters most for your use case.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 60.8 versus 60.4. Inside this category, FrontierScience 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 44.8. Inside this category, LiveCodeBench 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 83.6. Inside this category, MATH-500 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Qwen2.5-1M has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 80.9 versus 78.3. Inside this category, LongBench v2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Qwen2.5-1M has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 64.7 versus 60.2. Inside this category, BrowseComp is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
Qwen2.5-1M has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 68.4 versus 66.7. Inside this category, OfficeQA 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 84. 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 80.4. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.
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