Step 3.7 Flash vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)

Step 3.7 Flash 85

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (5,723 characters). Tool-calling format 25, the card names the parser to use in two runtimes, step3p5 in vLLM (with auto tool choice) and in SGLang, and both ship Step parsers in a release. Trained tool calling 20, the card presents tool orchestration as a main use, with multi-turn results, and the template renders every call in a turn. Structured output 0, Nothing on the card about JSON or schema-constrained output for the weights. Reasoning control 10, the template has a reasoning_effort setting and keeps reasoning_content, and the card names the step3p5 reasoning parser for vLLM and SGLang, which returns the reasoning apart from the answer. Context 10, 256K tokens per the card, and 262,144 positions in config.json. 20 + 25 + 20 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 85.

ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) 70

Chat template 20, the same Jinja template as Qwen3.8-27B, in the repository. Tool-calling format 10 of 25, the card names the parsers but the format lives only in the template. Trained tool calling 20, several calls a turn, and BottleCap evaluated agent tasks. Structured output 0, not documented. Reasoning control 10, reasoning_effort budgets thinking per request and the card says where the reasoning comes back. Context 10, 262,144 tokens.

Step 3.7 Flash 39

Model card 14, Intended use, the architecture, the parameters, the context and the language (in the metadata) are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card about the training data. Last change 10, the last commit, on 3 June 2026, fixed the modelling code, 160 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 0, none of the 11 most recent discussions that aren't pull requests (29 May to 24 June 2026) has a reply from a stepfun-ai member, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, Step-3.5-Flash stays in its own repositories and 3.7 came out in new ones, with no dated note on the older cards that we read. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture and the context, and June commits fixed the modelling code. 14 + 0 + 10 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 39.

ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) 53

Model card 8 of 20, intended use, limitations and parameters are there, but architecture, context, languages and a cut-off aren't. Training data 0, not described. Last change 20, BottleCap's GGUF build of the model changed its card on 7 October 2026, 27 days ago. Responsiveness 10, BottleCap answered 4 of 8 discussions on the main repository. Version policy 5, the earlier ThinkingCap stays in its own repository with an undated pointer to this one. File health 10, the readable metadata and builds agree and no broken-file report waits.

Step 3.7 Flash 70

Memory 5, the smallest build at 4 bits is StepFun's IQ4_XS GGUF, 104.99 GB with the 3.97 GB projector, and 108.96 GB × 1.2 = 130.8 GB, over what the reference machine can give a model and within 256 GB. The IQ3 and Q3 builds are below 4 bits and aren't read. Runtimes 20, Released vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 have the step3p7 model, and llama.cpp b12242 has the architecture, with StepFun's own GGUF. Four at 5 each, and the card documents all four. Builds 15, StepFun publishes GGUF at five quantised precisions, an FP8 build and an NVFP4 build. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata and its licence section, an OSI licence with nothing added. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for all four repositories on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 5, StepFun's own API serves it, per the card and our StepFun API listing, and Featherless and DeepInfra are live for it on Hugging Face. 5 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 70.

ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) 75

Memory 25 of 30, BottleCap's IQ4_XS GGUF is 15.5 GB, 18.6 GB with a fifth added, which fits 24 GB. Runtimes 20, it keeps the base's qwen3_5 architecture, which llama.cpp, vLLM, SGLang and Transformers run in released versions, while Ollama's entry is the base's. Builds 15, FP8, NVFP4, MLX and GGUF from BottleCap. Terms 10, PolyForm Small Business is free commercially only below 100 people and 1,000,000 USD (2019) revenue. Download 5, the main repository is gated behind a click-through with an account and contact details, though the GGUF, NVFP4 and MLX builds aren't. Hosted 0, no API or inference provider serves it.