Step 3.5 Flash alternatives
Match · Updated July 2026
The closest alternative to Step 3.5 Flash is Ling-2.6-1T — comparable intelligence (26.1 vs 26.0); for a cheaper option, Hy3 preview runs $0.063/M vs $0.100/M; and the best open-weight substitute is Kimi K3.
Closest match
Cheaper alternatives
hy3-preview
$0.063/M input · 33.6 intel
ring-2.6-1t
$0.075/M input · 30.6 intel
ling-2.6-1t
$0.075/M input · 26.1 intel
gpt-oss-120b
$0.037/M input · 23.8 intel
glm-4.7-flash
$0.060/M input · 22.9 intel
gpt-5-nano
$0.050/M input · 19.9 intel
Smarter alternatives
IToolsJSON
ReasoningTools+2ReasoningTools+2
ReasoningTools+1
ReasoningTools+2ReasoningTools+2
ling-2.6-1t
26.1 intel · $0.075/M
claude-opus-4.1
28.2 intel · $15.00/M
claude-opus-4.1:batch
28.2 intel · $7.50/M
minimax-m2
28.3 intel · $0.255/M
qwen3.5-35b-a3b
29.3 intel · $0.140/M
claude-sonnet-4.5
29.3 intel · $3.00/M
Open-source alternatives
kimi-k3
57.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
glm-5.2
51.1 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3
44.4 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
minimax-m3:batch
44.4 intel · open weights · 524K ctx
deepseek-v4-pro
44.3 intel · open weights · 1.0M ctx
kimi-k2.6
44.2 intel · open weights · 262K ctx
Frequently asked
What is the best alternative to Step 3.5 Flash?
Ling-2.6-1T is the closest alternative to Step 3.5 Flash, with an Intelligence Index of 26.1 (Step 3.5 Flash scores 26.0) at $0.075 per million input tokens.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Step 3.5 Flash?
Yes — Hy3 preview costs $0.063 per million input tokens versus $0.100 for Step 3.5 Flash, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
Is there an open-source alternative to Step 3.5 Flash?
Kimi K3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Step 3.5 Flash — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 57.1 on intelligence.