Model comparison
Grok 4.1 vs Step 3
Grok 4.1 and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.8 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Last verified . 15 shared benchmarks.
StepFunSummary
- They share 15 benchmarks with published results for both. Grok 4.1 scores higher in 7 categories and Step 3 in 1 category; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Grok 4.1 leads 62.6 to 54.5.
- Step 3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Grok 4.1 | Step 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | xAI | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 40.8 | 39.9 |
| Released | 2025-11-17 | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| Context window | — | — |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | — |
| Results tracked | 19 | 17 |
Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry
Category by category
Coding Step 3 leads
Grok 4.1: 33.4 (#246), Step 3: 39.5 (#144)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1445 | 1367 |
| LMArena WebDev | 1214 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
Grok 4.1: 33.8 (#47), Step 3: —
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Cybench | 39% | — |
Reasoning Too close to call
Grok 4.1: 28.3 (#91), Step 3: 27.6 (#102)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1436 | 1355 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.3% |
Math Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 36.2 (#124), Step 3: 34.9 (#148)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1422 | 1366 |
Knowledge Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 38.9 (#129), Step 3: 36.2 (#161)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1417 | 1333 |
Multimodal Not comparable
Grok 4.1: —, Step 3: 34.9 (#81)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1176 |
Multilingual Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 53.6 (#64), Step 3: 46.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1425 | 1327 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1464 | 1396 |
| LMArena German | 1447 | 1371 |
| LMArena Korean | 1407 | 1271 |
| LMArena Russian | 1434 | 1331 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1438 | 1372 |
| LMArena French | 1448 | — |
| LMArena Japanese | 1396 | — |
Instruction Following Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 74.0 (#106), Step 3: 70.6 (#159)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1400 | 1332 |
Long Context Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 43.2 (#96), Step 3: 40.3 (#152)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1416 | 1326 |
Writing & Preference Grok 4.1 leads
Grok 4.1: 62.6 (#71), Step 3: 54.5 (#146)
| Benchmark | Grok 4.1 | Step 3 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1437 | 1351 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1411 | 1322 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1438 | 1340 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4.1 better than Step 3?
Grok 4.1 and Step 3 score almost the same on the Noometry Index (40.8 vs 39.9), so choose on price, context window or the category you care about most.
Is Grok 4.1 or Step 3 better for coding?
Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 33.4 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Grok 4.1 and Step 3 share?
15 benchmarks have published results for both models. Grok 4.1 has 19 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.