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GPT-4.1 Mini vs Step 3.5 Flash

Step 3.5 Flash leads GPT-4.1 Mini on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 17.0 to 10.2, and Step 3.5 Flash costs 5.3x less per output token ($0.30 vs $1.60 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 35 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace GPT-4.1 Mini Replace Step 3.5 Flash
GPT-4.1 MiniOpenAI
Coding
No data
Overall
10.2
Output $/M
$1.60
0
Step 3.5 FlashStepFun
Coding
No data
Overall
17.0
Output $/M
$0.30
35
vs boards won of 35 shared

GPT-4.1 Mini or Step 3.5 Flash: which to pick

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick GPT-4.1 Mini for a larger context window (1.05M against 262K tokens) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or LMArena Text: coding, where it leads.

Model AGPT-4.1 MiniOpenAINot benchmarkedNo coding benchmark$1.818 per solved taskModel BStep 3.5 FlashStepFunNot benchmarkedNo coding benchmarkNo cost per solved task
Shared results
35
GPT-4.1 Mini only
49
Step 3.5 Flash only
0
Like-for-like categories
7 of 9

Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.

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.

At a glance

Coding index
GPT-4.1 Mini not benchmarked, Step 3.5 Flash not benchmarked.
Widest category
Agentic work, 41.5 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
Widest single gap
τ²-Bench Telecom: GPT-4.1 Mini 52.9% against Step 3.5 Flash 94.4%, 41.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
GPT-4.1 Mini $1.60 against Step 3.5 Flash $0.30 per million output tokens, 5.3x apart.
Context window
GPT-4.1 Mini 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryGPT-4.1 MiniBarsStep 3.5 FlashTies
Coding03
Intelligence01
Agentic work01
Reasoning05
Math02
Knowledge04
General019
All shared boards035
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index03
Coding benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
Aider polyglot32.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
SWE-bench Verified23.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AA Coding Index20.2Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)58.2%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run)48.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)7.6%32.6%Step 3.5 Flash
WeirdML37.6%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: coding13671436Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT13601434Step 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
AA Intelligence Index10.217.0Step 3.5 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index134.9Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
τ²-Bench Telecom52.9%94.4%Step 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Reasoning benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
GPQA Diamond67.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)70.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)66.4%83.1%Step 3.5 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)5.0%24.5%Step 3.5 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)65.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
ARC-AGI3.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
ARC-AGI-20.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Chess puzzles1.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Mystery game puzzles7.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13491411Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: expert13381421Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13621421Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: diagrams1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: homework1214Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Math benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
AIME49.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MATH 500 (Vals AI)88.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MGSM (Vals AI)87.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AA Math Index46.3Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run)46.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
OTIS Mock AIME44.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 36.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MATH level 587.3%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: math13431408Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work13471421Step 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
Knowledge benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
MMLU Pro77.2%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)78.0%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)57.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)71.9%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)65.5%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MedQA (Vals AI)84.6%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run)78.1%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
SimpleQA Verified12.7%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: science13281415Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13241408Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government13431408Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance13221394Step 3.5 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
Design Arena: websites997Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: UI components961Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: game dev1071Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: data viz1034Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: 3D837Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Design Arena: all code categories994Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index019
General benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
IFBench38.3%66.5%Step 3.5 Flash
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)44.0%63.0%Step 3.5 Flash
DTBench68.8%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMCA21.1%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text13411403Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following13331385Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing12991357Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision1181Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Text: English13561417Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English13181385Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese13291446Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: German13501405Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese12901353Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean12981351Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: French13581421Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish13191419Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian13241385Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish13261389Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: multi-turn13541404Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries13441402Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language13191372Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media13001360Step 3.5 Flash
LMArena Vision: English1191Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: Chinese1186Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: reading text1188Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: humor1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: captioning1174Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: recognizing things1187Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
LMArena Vision: creative writing1182Not measuredOnly GPT-4.1 Mini measured
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
BenchmarkGPT-4.1 MiniStep 3.5 FlashLeader
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

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.0012Fits 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

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.025Fits 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

GPT-4.1 Mini$0.096Fits 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.

Specifications of GPT-4.1 Mini and Step 3.5 Flash
SpecificationOpenAI GPT-4.1 MiniStepFun Step 3.5 Flash
MakerOpenAIStepFun
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedApril 14, 2025January 29, 2026
Context window1.05M262K
Input $/Mtok$0.40$0.10
Output $/Mtok$1.60$0.30
Coding indexNot benchmarkedNot benchmarked
Independent measurements behind it00
Cost per solved task$1.818Not computable
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is GPT-4.1 Mini better than Step 3.5 Flash for coding?

Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GPT-4.1 Mini for a larger context window (1.05M against 262K tokens) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or LMArena Text: coding, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, GPT-4.1 Mini or Step 3.5 Flash?

GPT-4.1 Mini costs $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; Step 3.5 Flash costs $0.10 and $0.30. Cost per solved task is known for GPT-4.1 Mini only.

Which has the bigger context window, GPT-4.1 Mini or Step 3.5 Flash?

GPT-4.1 Mini, with 1.05M tokens against 262K.

How many benchmarks is the GPT-4.1 Mini vs Step 3.5 Flash comparison based on?

35 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GPT-4.1 Mini'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.

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