Qwen3.8 27B vs Step 3.7 Flash
Qwen3.8 27B leads Step 3.7 Flash on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 33.7 to 19.5, and Step 3.7 Flash costs 2.2x less per output token ($1.15 vs $2.55 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 6 benchmarks have a result for both.
Qwen3.8 27B or Step 3.7 Flash: which to pick
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a coding score, 74.2 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.7 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Step 3.7 Flash for output tokens 2.2x cheaper ($1.15 vs $2.55 per million).
- Shared results
- 6
- Qwen3.8 27B only
- 79
- Step 3.7 Flash only
- 12
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B leads, 33.7 against 19.5.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a AA Agentic Index result, 45.8.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a GPQA Diamond result, 88.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a MMLU Pro result, 84.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Step 3.7 Flash has a Design Arena: websites result, 1196.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 27B
Qwen3.8 27B takes 1M tokens against 262K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 3.7 Flash
Qwen3.8 27B $0.0017, Step 3.7 Flash $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 27B has the number, $1.26.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Qwen3.8 27B 74.2 from 4 benchmarks, Step 3.7 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 15.6 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AA Coding Index: Qwen3.8 27B 68.1 against Step 3.7 Flash 39.6, 28.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Qwen3.8 27B $2.55 against Step 3.7 Flash $1.15 per million output tokens, 2.2x apart.
- Context window
- Qwen3.8 27B takes 1M tokens, Step 3.7 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 | Qwen3.8 27B | Bars | Step 3.7 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 6 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 86.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1593 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| AA Coding Index | 68.1 | 39.6 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 84.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 64.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 14.2% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 39.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 58.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 38.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 67.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SciCode | 46.6% | 43.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 35.6% | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 694.1 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1483 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1478 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1602 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1570 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1577 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 33.7 | 19.5 | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 151.7 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 45.8 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench research | 59.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench browser | 32.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 27.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 48.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 30.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 36.1% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 59.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 98.5% | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| APEX-Agents | 47.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 88.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 80.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 83.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.5% | 80.9% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.9% | 21.4% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| ARC-AGI | 87.5% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 42.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1459 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1479 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1461 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1285 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1295 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| ProofBench | 16.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1455 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1458 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.3% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 82.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 64.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 28.7% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1467 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1437 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1447 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1438 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index9 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1196 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1179 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 1158 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1172 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 1129 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1182 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1085 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1152 | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| LiveBench design | 75.9% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.6% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 52.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 83.8% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 67.3% | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 82.0% | 73.7% | Qwen3.8 27B |
| DTBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMCA | 41.4% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 45.0% | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1440 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1436 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1383 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision | 1269 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1448 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1428 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1501 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1443 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1387 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1384 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1465 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1449 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1415 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1439 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1440 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1448 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1405 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1393 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1267 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1326 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1281 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1235 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1237 | Not measured | Only Qwen3.8 27B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Qwen3.8 27B | Step 3.7 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 3.7 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Step 3.7 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Step 3.7 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 | Qwen3.8 27B | StepFun Step 3.7 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Qwen | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 14, 2026 | May 28, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.425 | $0.20 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.55 | $1.15 |
| Coding index | 74.2 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $1.26 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Qwen3.8 27B better than Step 3.7 Flash for coding?
Only Qwen3.8 27B has a coding score, 74.2 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.7 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Step 3.7 Flash for output tokens 2.2x cheaper ($1.15 vs $2.55 per million).
Which is cheaper, Qwen3.8 27B or Step 3.7 Flash?
Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.425 per million input tokens and $2.55 per million output tokens; Step 3.7 Flash costs $0.20 and $1.15. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 27B only.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.8 27B or Step 3.7 Flash?
Qwen3.8 27B, with 1M tokens against 262K.
How many benchmarks is the Qwen3.8 27B vs Step 3.7 Flash comparison based on?
6 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Qwen3.8 27B's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Step 3.7 Flash's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.