StepFun Step 3.5 Flash vs Perplexity Comet

Which one should you pick? Here's the full breakdown.

StepFun Step 3.5 Flash

7.8/10

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

Our Pick

Perplexity Comet

8.4/10

Perplexity's agentic AI browser -- FREE on all platforms as of 2026-03-18 (previously $200/mo Max-only). iOS, Android, Windows, Mac. Browses the web, executes multi-step tasks, and summarizes pages in-line. Comet Plus ($5/mo) adds premium publisher content

Category	StepFun Step 3.5 Flash	Perplexity Comet
Ease of Use	6.0	8.0
Output Quality	8.0	8.0
Value	9.0	9.5
Features	8.0	8.0
Overall	7.8	8.4

Pricing Comparison

Feature	StepFun Step 3.5 Flash	Perplexity Comet
Free Tier	Yes	Yes
Starting Price	$0	$0

Which Should You Pick?

Pick StepFun Step 3.5 Flash if...

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 Flash

Pick Perplexity Comet if...

✓Easier to use (8 vs 6)

Users who already use Perplexity for search and want an agent browser that can complete multi-step tasks (booking, research, shopping, document summarization) across tabs. Also a strong introduction to the AI-browser category for anyone curious but unwilling to pay $200/mo for a preview -- the 2026-03-18 free rollout makes evaluation risk-free.

Visit Perplexity Comet

Our Verdict

Perplexity Comet edges out StepFun Step 3.5 Flash with a 8.4 vs 7.8 overall score. Both are solid picks, but Perplexity Comet has the advantage in value.