Compare/Step 3.5 Flash vs Mistral Small 3

Step 3.5 FlashvsMistral Small 3

Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.

StepFun

Step 3.5 Flash

Input
$0.1/M
Output
$0.3/M
Speed
85 tok/s
TTFT
2.73s
Mistral

Mistral Small 3

Input
$0.1/M
Output
$0.3/M
Speed
153 tok/s
TTFT
0.52s

Winner by Category

Cheaper
Tie
Faster (tok/s)
Mistral Small 3
Lower Latency
Mistral Small 3
Benchmarks (7-5)
Step 3.5 Flash

Pricing Comparison

MetricStep 3.5 FlashMistral Small 3
Input ($/M tokens)$0.1$0.1
Output ($/M tokens)$0.3$0.3
Cost for 1M input + 100K output tokens:
Step 3.5 Flash$0.13
Mistral Small 3$0.13

Speed Comparison

Output Speed (tokens/s) — higher is better
Step 3.5 Flash
85 tok/s
Mistral Small 3
153 tok/s
Time to First Token (seconds) — lower is better
Step 3.5 Flash
2.73s
Mistral Small 3
0.52s

Benchmark Comparison

Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks

Intelligence Index
37.812.7
Coding Index
31.6
Math Index
4.3
GPQA Diamond
83.1%46.2%
MMLU-Pro
65.2%
LiveCodeBench
25.2%
AIME 2025
4.3%
MATH-500
71.5%
Humanity's Last Exam
19.1%4.1%
SciCode
40.4%23.6%
IFBench
64.6%26.4%
TerminalBench
27.3%
Step 3.5 Flash7 wins
5 winsMistral Small 3

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is cheaper, Step 3.5 Flash or Mistral Small 3?

Both models have similar pricing. Check the detailed breakdown above for input vs output token costs.

Which model performs better on benchmarks?

Step 3.5 Flash wins 7 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 5 for Mistral Small 3. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.

Which is faster for real-time applications?

Mistral Small 3 generates tokens faster at 153 tok/s vs 85 tok/s. However, Mistral Small 3 has lower time-to-first-token (0.52s vs 2.73s).

When should I use Step 3.5 Flash vs Mistral Small 3?

Choose based on your priorities: both are similarly priced, Step 3.5 Flash for stronger benchmark performance, and Mistral Small 3 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.