Gemini 4 Argon vs Step 3.5 Flash
Updated October 21, 2026. 26 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
vs boards won of 26 shared
Decision reading
Only Gemini 4 Argon has a coding score, 81.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.5 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Step 3.5 Flash has the edge where output tokens cost 33.3x less.
Model AGemini 4 ArgonGoogle81.0/1005 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved taskModel BStep 3.5 FlashStepFunNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 26
- Gemini 4 Argon only
- 66
- Step 3.5 Flash only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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
Only Gemini 4 Argon has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon leads, 52.6 against 17.0.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Gemini 4 Argon has a Design Arena: websites result, 1315.
Directional only
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Argon has a Vals Index result, 69.2%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemini 4 Argon
Gemini 4 Argon takes 1.05M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 3.5 Flash
Gemini 4 Argon $0.0070, Step 3.5 Flash $0.0003 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 4 Argon 81.0 from 5 benchmarks, Step 3.5 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 35.6 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- AA Intelligence Index: Gemini 4 Argon 52.6 against Step 3.5 Flash 17.0, 35.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 4 Argon $10.00 against Step 3.5 Flash $0.30 per million output tokens, 33.3x apart.
- Context window
- Gemini 4 Argon takes 1.05M 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 | Gemini 4 Argon | Bars | Step 3.5 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 4 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| General | 13 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 26 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 89.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1678 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 57.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 91.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 68.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 2.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 57.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | 56.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 21.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 77.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SciCode | 61.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 32.6% | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| FrontierCode | 47.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierSWE | 55.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2100.1 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1546 | 1436 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1556 | 1434 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1692 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1643 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 52.6 | 17.0 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 166.4 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1147 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LiveBench research | 83.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LiveBench browser | 92.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 69.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 44.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 65.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 44.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 54.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 27.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 75.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | 76.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 44.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vals Science Index | 55.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Time Horizon Index (Vals AI) | 52.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| CUA-bench (Vals AI) | 4.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Robo-bench (Vals AI) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 94.4% | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| APEX-Agents | 82.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $13,718 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 95.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | 45.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 83.1% | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 57.1% | 24.5% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 96.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 91.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Chess puzzles | 59.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 64.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| EBR-bench | 64.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1546 | 1411 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1550 | 1421 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1548 | 1421 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 86.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| ProofBench | 99.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1536 | 1408 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1557 | 1421 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 88.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 58.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 76.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1548 | 1415 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1555 | 1408 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1548 | 1408 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1525 | 1394 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1315 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1331 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1376 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1337 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1389 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1328 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LiveBench design | 73.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index130
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | Step 3.5 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 69.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 85.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 53.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 87.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 66.5% | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.7% | 63.0% | Gemini 4 Argon |
| DTBench | 97.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMCA | 63.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| Furniture assembly | 72.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Argon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1532 | 1403 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1534 | 1385 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1527 | 1357 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: English | 1538 | 1417 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1522 | 1385 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1611 | 1446 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| 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 | 1503 | 1419 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1534 | 1385 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1389 | Only Step 3.5 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1556 | 1404 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1547 | 1402 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1529 | 1372 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1527 | 1360 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | 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
Gemini 4 Argon$0.0070Fits in one request
Step 3.5 Flash$0.0003Fits in one request
Step 3.5 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 4 Argon$0.130Fits in one request
Step 3.5 Flash$0.0059Fits in one request
Step 3.5 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 4 Argon$0.500Fits in one request
Step 3.5 Flash$0.023Fits in one request
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 | Google Gemini 4 Argon | StepFun Step 3.5 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | StepFun | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | October 13, 2026 | January 29, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $0.10 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $0.30 |
| Coding index | 81.0 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 5 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 4 Argon better than Step 3.5 Flash for coding?
Only Gemini 4 Argon has a coding score, 81.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.5 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Step 3.5 Flash has the edge where output tokens cost 33.3x less.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon or Step 3.5 Flash?
Gemini 4 Argon costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 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, Gemini 4 Argon or Step 3.5 Flash?
Gemini 4 Argon, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Argon vs Step 3.5 Flash comparison based on?
26 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Gemini 4 Argon's coding index rests on 5 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.