Model comparison

Qwen3.5-9B vs Step 3

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 0 shared benchmarks.

Qwen3.5-9B Alibaba (Qwen)

33.3

Rank #235 Confirmed

Step 3 StepFun

39.9

Rank #145 Confirmed

Summary

  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3.5-9B leads 46.0 to 36.2.

Side by side

Qwen3.5-9B and Step 3 specifications
Qwen3.5-9BStep 3
ProviderAlibaba (Qwen)StepFun
Noometry Index33.339.9
Released2026-02-23—
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window262K—
Max output66K—
Input $ / M tokens$0.10—
Output $ / M tokens$0.15—
Results tracked1017

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Category by category

Coding Step 3 leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 35.3 (#213), Step 3: 39.5 (#144)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
SciCode27.5%—
LMArena Coding—1367

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: 14.4 (#143), Step 3: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
Terminal-Bench9.2%—

Reasoning Step 3 leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 22.5 (#178), Step 3: 27.6 (#102)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
Kagi LLM Benchmark—62.3%
CritPt0.3%—
Chess Puzzles12%—
LMArena Hard Prompts—1355
DTBench71.2%—
LMCA24.5%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.45—

Math Step 3 leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 33.5 (#174), Step 3: 34.9 (#148)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions48.5%—
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202561.7%—
LMArena Math—1366

Knowledge Qwen3.5-9B leads

Qwen3.5-9B: 46.0 (#77), Step 3: 36.2 (#161)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
GPQA Diamond79%—
LMArena Expert—1333

Multimodal Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Step 3: 34.9 (#81)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
LMArena Vision—1176

Multilingual Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Step 3: 46.5 (#154)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
LMArena Non-English—1327
LMArena Chinese—1396
LMArena German—1371
LMArena Korean—1271
LMArena Russian—1331
LMArena Spanish—1372

Instruction Following Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Step 3: 70.6 (#159)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
LMArena Instruction Following—1332

Long Context Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Step 3: 40.3 (#152)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
LMArena Longer Query—1326

Writing & Preference Not comparable

Qwen3.5-9B: —, Step 3: 54.5 (#146)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkQwen3.5-9BStep 3
LMArena Text—1351
LMArena Creative Writing—1322
LMArena Multi-Turn—1340

Frequently asked questions

Is Qwen3.5-9B better than Step 3?

Step 3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.9 to 33.3 on the Noometry Index.

Is Qwen3.5-9B or Step 3 better for coding?

Step 3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 39.5 versus 35.3 in the Noometry coding category.

How many benchmarks do Qwen3.5-9B and Step 3 share?

0 benchmarks have published results for both models. Qwen3.5-9B has 10 scored results on Noometry and Step 3 has 17.

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