This paper presents an experimental study on short concrete beams reinforced with steel fibers in bending stress. A total of 24 reinforced concrete beams with steel fibers was tested at the LEM-DEC PUC-Rio with variations of length and fiber volume fraction. Two groups were created, group I, consisting of 12 beams with 40 kg/m3 of steel fibers and group II with 12 beams with 60 kg/m3 of steel fibers. In each group four beams with a length of 300 mm, four beams with a length of 500 mm and four beams with a length of 800 mm with cross section of 15 cm x 15 cm were tested with the purpose of investigating the scale effect in this case. The beams were submitted to bending aiming at investigating shear stresses, bending stresses, strain energy, toughness, scale effect and fracture energy. Comparative graphics were made to analyze the influence of the fibers on the reinforced concrete behavior regarding each parameter selected. Group II showed higher resistance, but not significantly. However the smaller the length the larger the influence of the fibers; 35 percent for the length of 300 mm, 30 percent for the length of 500 mm and 24 percent for the length of 800 mm. The largest fiber volume fraction gave the concrete higher resistance when submitted to bending and shear, even more noticeable for the smaller lengths. The strain and fracture energy, however, shows considerable difference for smaller lengths, being almost the same in the two groups for the 800 mm beam. Toughness shows improvement in the longer beam and a decline in the shorter one from group II. The traction resistance shows decline as the length rises, presenting the scale effect in the study.