Google: Gemma 3 12B vs StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Verified 2026 FinOps benchmark comparing Google: Gemma 3 12B (google/gemma-3-12b-it) vs StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash (stepfun/step-3.5-flash). Simulate cache read multipliers, context cliffs, MAU bills, and P90 latency.
Google: Gemma 3 12B (google/gemma-3-12b-it) — Google AI Startup Credits ($350K) & 50% Cache Promo
Google DeepMind is currently subsidizing Gemini 4 Argon at 50% off standard rates ($2.00/1M input & $10.00/1M output instead of $4/$20) until November 30, 2026, alongside 95% off Context Caching ($0.10/1M) and up to $350,000 in Google for Startups Cloud/Vertex AI credits.
StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash (stepfun/step-3.5-flash) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $0.05/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing Google: Gemma 3 12B (API ID: google/gemma-3-12b-it) vs StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash (API ID: stepfun/step-3.5-flash), Google: Gemma 3 12B offers lower standard input pricing at $0.05/1M tokens ($0.15/1M output), while Google: Gemma 3 12B leads in cached prefix economics at $0.025/1M tokens (50% discount). Google: Gemma 3 12B achieves a 0ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (280ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | Google: Gemma 3 12B | StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | google/gemma-3-12b-it | stepfun/step-3.5-flash | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.05 / $0.15 | $0.1 / $0.3 | Google: Gemma 3 12B |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.025/1M (50% Off) | $0.05/1M (50% Off) | Google: Gemma 3 12B |
| Context Window / Max Output | 128K In / 16K Out | 256K In / 64K Out | StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | Google: Gemma 3 12B (-0ms) |
Gemma 3 introduces multimodality, supporting vision-language input and text outputs. It handles context windows up to 128k tokens, understands over 140 languages, and offers improv
Step 3.5 Flash is StepFun's most capable open-source foundation model. Built on a sparse Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, it selectively activates only 11B of its 196B parame
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🛰️Switch from Google: Gemma 3 12B to StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash
Step 3.5 Flash is StepFun's most capable open-source foundation model. Built on a sparse Mixture of Experts (MoE) architecture, it selectively activates only 11B of its 196B parame Verified P90 latency of 280ms.