DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Step 3.5 Flash
Updated October 21, 2026. 7 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
DeepSeek V3 0324 has the edge where what matters is Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 7
- DeepSeek V3 0324 only
- 28
- Step 3.5 Flash only
- 28
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash leads, 17.0 against 9.7.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a AA Agentic Index result, 0.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a GPQA Diamond result, 61.6%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a AIME result, 52.2%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only DeepSeek V3 0324 has a MMLU Pro result, 79.5%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash takes 262K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 3.5 Flash
DeepSeek V3 0324 $0.0008, Step 3.5 Flash $0.0003 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3 0324 not benchmarked, Step 3.5 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 47.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: DeepSeek V3 0324 47.1% against Step 3.5 Flash 94.4%, 47.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3 0324 $1.07 against Step 3.5 Flash $0.30 per million output tokens, 3.6x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3 0324 takes 164K tokens, Step 3.5 Flash 262K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Bars | Step 3.5 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 42.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 21.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 65.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 40.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| SciCode | 39.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 15.2% | 32.6% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| WeirdML | 36.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1436 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1434 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.7 | 17.0 | Step 3.5 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 0.8 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 47.1% | 94.4% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| METR time horizons | 49.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 36 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 61.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.5% | 83.1% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.7% | 24.5% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 67.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| SimpleBench | 27.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1411 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1421 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1421 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 52.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | 88.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 91.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| AA Math Index | 41.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 41.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 37.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MATH level 5 | 75.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1408 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1421 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 4 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 79.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 77.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 54.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 71.1% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 82.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1415 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1408 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1408 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1394 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 9 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 41.0% | 66.5% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 40.7% | 63.0% | Step 3.5 Flash |
| DTBench | 64.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMCA | 15.5% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | 50.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | 77.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3 0324 measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1403 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1385 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1357 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1417 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1385 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1446 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1405 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1353 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1351 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1421 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1419 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1385 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1389 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1404 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1402 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1372 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1360 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 23 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3 0324 | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 3.5 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Step 3.5 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Step 3.5 Flash costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | DeepSeek V3 0324 | StepFun Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | March 24, 2025 | January 29, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.27 | $0.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.07 | $0.30 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3 0324 better than Step 3.5 Flash for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. DeepSeek V3 0324 has the edge where what matters is Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or AA Intelligence Index, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3 0324 or Step 3.5 Flash?
DeepSeek V3 0324 costs $0.27 per million input tokens and $1.07 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash costs $0.10 and $0.30. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3 0324 or Step 3.5 Flash?
Step 3.5 Flash, with 262K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3 0324 vs Step 3.5 Flash comparison based on?
7 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3 0324's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Step 3.5 Flash's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.