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Parse vs Step-3.5-Flash

Comparing Parse and Step-3.5-Flash across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.

Cohere · StepFun · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Parse and Step-3.5-Flash trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.

Step-3.5-Flash also accepts a larger context window (65,536 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Parse

  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026

Choose Step-3.5-Flash

  • you process long inputs — it offers a 65,536 token context window
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Parse
Cohere
Step-3.5-Flash
StepFun
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
— / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
— / M
$0.40 / M
Context window
8,192
65,536

Individual benchmarks

1 reported for Parse · 7 for Step-3.5-Flash

No common benchmarks found

Parse and Step-3.5-Flashdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Model Size

Parameter count comparison

193.7B diff

Step-3.5-Flash has 193.7B more parameters than Parse, making it 8421.7% larger.

Cohere
Parse
2.3Bparameters
StepFun
Step-3.5-Flash
196.0Bparameters
2.3B
Parse
196.0B
Step-3.5-Flash

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Step-3.5-Flash accepts 65,536 input tokens compared to Parse's 8,192 tokens. Only Step-3.5-Flash specifies output context (8,192 tokens).

Cohere
Parse
Input8,192 tokens
Output- tokens
StepFun
Step-3.5-Flash
Input65,536 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Tue Sep 01 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Parse supports multimodal inputs, whereas Step-3.5-Flash does not.

Parse can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Parse

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Step-3.5-Flash

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Parse is licensed under a proprietary license, while Step-3.5-Flash uses Apache 2.0.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Parse

Proprietary

Closed source

Step-3.5-Flash

Apache 2.0

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Parse was released on 2026-08-27, while Step-3.5-Flash was released on 2026-02-02.

Parse is 7 months newer than Step-3.5-Flash.

Parse

Aug 27, 2026

4 days ago

6mo newer
Step-3.5-Flash

Feb 2, 2026

7 months ago

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Parse is available from Azure, Cohere. Step-3.5-Flash is available from StepFun.

Parse

azure logo
Azure
cohere logo
Cohere

Step-3.5-Flash

stepfun logo
StepFun
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Parse and Step-3.5-Flash side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Parse
✓ Preferred
Step-3.5-Flash
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Parse vs Step-3.5-Flash.

Which is better, Parse or Step-3.5-Flash?

Parse (Cohere) and Step-3.5-Flash (StepFun) each have strengths in different areas. Compare their benchmark scores, pricing, context windows, and capabilities above to determine which fits your needs.

How does Parse compare to Step-3.5-Flash in benchmarks?

Parse scores ParseBench: 79.2%. Step-3.5-Flash scores AIME 2025: 97.3%, Tau-bench: 88.2%, LiveCodeBench v6: 86.4%, IMO-AnswerBench: 85.4%, SWE-Bench Verified: 74.4%.

What are the context window sizes for Parse and Step-3.5-Flash?

Parse supports 8K tokens and Step-3.5-Flash supports 66K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Parse and Step-3.5-Flash?

Key differences include context window (8K vs 66K), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs Apache 2.0). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Parse and Step-3.5-Flash?

Parse is developed by Cohere and Step-3.5-Flash is developed by StepFun.

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