Native vision and video, MIT weights, fifteen cents per million.
82
Coding
76
Writing
78
Research
85
Images
95
Value
86
Long Context
Published benchmarks
Use this when
Cheap multimodal work at scale on MIT-licensed weights
Skip this if
You need top-tier reasoning or a published SWE-bench Verified figure — this is a volume model, not a ceiling model.
Pricing
$0.15/1M in
$0.50/1M out
Context
1M tokens
Speed
Fast
Released August 26, 2026. 320B total parameters, 18B active (320B-A18B MoE). Z.ai lists $0.15/1M input, $0.03/1M cached input and $0.50/1M output, with a launch promotion halving those rates through September 9, 2026. Self-reported against GLM-5.2: DeepSWE 63.4 vs 46.2, AutomationBench 48.8 vs 26.2.
Z.ai's MIT-licensed open-weight flagship — the top open-weights coding model of mid-2026, beating GPT-5.5 on agentic coding benchmarks at roughly a sixth of the cost.
Verdict
Top open-weights coder — beats GPT-5.5 at a sixth of the cost.
Quality score
80%
Pricing
$1.40/1M in
$4.40/1M out
Speed
Balanced
3/5 speed
Context
1M tokens
Announced June 13, 2026; pay-per-token API live June 16. Two reasoning modes ('thinking' and 'max thinking'). GLM Coding Plan: Lite $18/mo (~$12.60 effective yearly), Pro $72, Max $160.
Z.ai's newest flagship, aimed squarely at software engineering, autonomous agents and cybersecurity — and the first open-weights model to beat Claude Mythos 5 on a security benchmark.
Verdict
Same price as GLM-5.2, far stronger on agents and security.
Quality score
81%
Pricing
$1.40/1M in
$4.40/1M out
Speed
Balanced
3/5 speed
Context
1M tokens
Released August 14, 2026. Z.ai list pricing is $1.40/$4.40, the same rate as GLM-5.2; resellers discount from that list. Also available through the GLM Coding Plan from $18/mo. Reported GPQA Diamond 91.7% and Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 59.5.
Open weightsAgenticSecurity1M context
Best for
Agentic engineering and security work on open weights
GLM-5.3 Flash is best for cheap multimodal work at scale on mit-licensed weights. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around budget pricing and fast speed.
When should I avoid GLM-5.3 Flash?
You need top-tier reasoning or a published SWE-bench Verified figure — this is a volume model, not a ceiling model.
What is a cheaper alternative to GLM-5.3 Flash?
Mistral: Mistral Nemo is the lower-cost option to compare first when you want a similar workflow fit with less token spend.
What is a faster alternative to GLM-5.3 Flash?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the better pick when response time matters more than maximum depth or premium quality.
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