Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Step 5 Preview
Gemini 3.8 Flash 
Step 5 Preview Verdict
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) and Step 5 Preview are level on quality (64.9 vs 65.0).
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) is stronger in agents & tools, coding, knowledge, multimodal.
- Step 5 Preview is stronger in composite, long context, reasoning.
- They cost about the same ($1.43 per 1M blended).
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) | Step 5 Preview |
|---|---|---|
| BenchLeader Index | 64.9 | 65.0 |
| Agents & tools score | 74.8 | – |
| Coding score | 63.8 | – |
| Composite score | 79.7 | 84.4 |
| Knowledge score | 77.8 | 72.0 |
| Long context score | 68.5 | 70.8 |
| Multimodal score | 68.9 | 60.8 |
| Reasoning score | 65.6 | 82.1 |
| Blended price $/M | $1.50 | $1.43 |
| Output speed | 78 tok/s | – |
| Time to first answer | 2.3 s | – |
| Context window | 1.0M | 1M |
| SciCode | 54.4% | – |
| AA Intelligence Index | 40 | 43.6 |
| AA-LCR | 84.0% | 88.3% |
| MMMU-Pro | 84.2% | 76.4% |
| AA-Omniscience | 28.6 | 16.4 |
| GPQA Diamond (AA) | 93.5% | – |
| Humanity's Last Exam (AA) | 42.1% | 46.5% |
| SciCode (AA) | 55.1% | 58.9% |
| CritPt | 12.3% | 20.9% |
| GDPval (AA) | 47.8% | 53.6% |
| τ²-Bench Banking (AA) | 45.8% | – |
| DeepSWE | 71.0% | – |
| CursorBench | 67.0% | – |
Data as of 2026-09-19. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.
Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Step 5 Preview: questions
- Is Gemini 3.8 Flash better than Step 5 Preview?
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (medium) and Step 5 Preview are level on quality (64.9 vs 65.0). The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; Step 5 Preview is ahead overall as of 2026-09-19, but check the category scores for your use.
- Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.8 Flash or Step 5 Preview?
- Step 5 Preview is cheaper: $1.43 against $1.50 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token.
- Which has the larger context window?
- Gemini 3.8 Flash accepts more context: 1.0M against 1M tokens.