Side-by-side comparison of SmolLM3 3B (Hugging Face · USA) and Step-3.7-Flash (StepFun) for self-hosted deployment of the open-weight model. SmolLM3 3B is rated EU-ready; Step-3.7-Flash is conditional. They part ways on commercial use: SmolLM3 3B is "Yes", Step-3.7-Flash is "Unrestricted".
| Field | ||
|---|---|---|
| Summary | ||
| Verdict | EU-ready Fully open small model: Apache 2.0 weights, training data published, engineering blueprint public. 6 native languages (EN/FR/ES/DE/IT/PT) covers major EU markets. 128K context via YARN. Strong default for edge or on-prem EU deployments where transparency matters. | Conditional Per the published Apache 2.0 LICENSE, the Step-3.7-Flash weights ship without commercial restriction — a 198B / 11B-active vision-language MoE with a 256k-token context aimed at tool-heavy and agentic workflows. The remaining EU-readiness gaps are the entirely undisclosed training corpus and StepFun's Shanghai-based vendor jurisdiction; deploy on self-managed EU infrastructure and document the Art. 50 transparency story for any synthetic or biometric output. |
| Last reviewed | 2026-04-16 | 2026-05-30 |
| Open-weight | ||
| Licence | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Commercial use | Yes | Unrestricted |
| Training data | Disclosed | Undisclosed |
| Origin | USA | China (Shanghai) |
| Performance & pricing? | ||
| Quality index | — | — |
| Speed | — | — |
| Blended price | — | — |
| Context window | — | — |
| Evidence | ||
| Sources | ||
No overlapping sources between the two entries.