StepFun Step 3.5 Flash vs Fireflies.ai
Which one should you pick? Here's the full breakdown.
StepFun Step 3.5 Flash
StepFun's (China) agent-focused open-weight model -- Step 3.5 Flash launched 2026-02-01. 196B sparse MoE, ~11B active. Benchmarks slightly ahead of DeepSeek V3.2 at over 3x smaller total size. Step 3 (321B / 38B active, Apache 2.0) and Step3-VL-10B multimodal also in the family
Fireflies.ai
AI meeting notetaker with 6,000+ integrations that records, transcribes, and summarizes your calls
| Category | StepFun Step 3.5 Flash | Fireflies.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 6.0 | 7.5 |
| Output Quality | 8.0 | 7.0 |
| Value | 9.0 | 7.5 |
| Features | 8.0 | 9.0 |
| Overall | 7.8 | 7.8 |
Pricing Comparison
| Feature | StepFun Step 3.5 Flash | Fireflies.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Starting Price | $0 | $0 |
Which Should You Pick?
Pick StepFun Step 3.5 Flash if...
- ✓Higher output quality (8 vs 7)
- ✓Better value for money (9/10)
Teams building agent systems on Chinese open-weight foundations who want something other than DeepSeek or Qwen, especially if agentic tool-use is the primary workload. Also good for Chinese-market products where StepFun's domestic tuning advantages matter. And for anyone looking to add diversity to their open-weight evaluation matrix beyond the top-3 Chinese labs.
Visit StepFun Step 3.5 FlashPick Fireflies.ai if...
- ✓Easier to use (7.5 vs 6)
- ✓More features (9 vs 8)
Sales teams that need CRM-integrated call recording, remote teams that want searchable meeting archives, and managers who sit in too many meetings to take notes manually.
Visit Fireflies.aiOur Verdict
StepFun Step 3.5 Flash and Fireflies.ai are extremely close overall. Your choice comes down to specific needs -- StepFun Step 3.5 Flash is better for teams building agent systems on chinese open-weight foundations who want something other than deepseek or qwen, especially if agentic tool-use is the primary workload, while Fireflies.ai works best for sales teams that need crm-integrated call recording, remote teams that want searchable meeting archives, and managers who sit in too many meetings to take notes manually.