Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads Gemini 3 Flash Preview on coding, 57.7 to 43.7 on the Vibe Coding Index, and GLM 5.3 Flash costs 6.0x less per output token ($0.50 vs $3.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 34 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 34 shared, 2 tied
Gemini 3 Flash Preview or GLM 5.3 Flash: which to pick
Pick GLM 5.3 Flash for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview.
Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
Model AGemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle43.7/1002 independent benchmarks$0.37 per solved taskModel BGLM 5.3 FlashZ.ai57.7/1006 independent benchmarks$0.02 per solved task
- Shared results
- 34
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview only
- 37
- GLM 5.3 Flash only
- 68
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash scores 57.7 against 43.7.
2 and 6 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 41.8 against 26.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a AA Agentic Index result, 50.9.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 87.9% against 86.4%.
Same board, both measured
Math
AIME
No call
Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview has a AIME result, 95.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Gemini 3 Flash Preview
Gemini 3 Flash Preview leads, 88.6% against 86.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 1272 against 1196.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a Vals Index result, 50.9%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 5.3 Flash
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.0020, GLM 5.3 Flash $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GLM 5.3 Flash
Gemini 3 Flash Preview $0.37, GLM 5.3 Flash $0.02.
Published attempt cost and pass rate
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview 43.7 from 2 benchmarks, GLM 5.3 Flash 57.7 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 23.0 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: Gemini 3 Flash Preview 1367.2 against GLM 5.3 Flash 303.6, 35.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 3 Flash Preview $3.00 against GLM 5.3 Flash $0.50 per million output tokens, 6.0x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 1.05M tokens.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Bars | GLM 5.3 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 4 | 1 tie | |
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 4 | ||
| Reasoning | 4 | 5 | ||
| Math | 1 | 2 | 1 tie | |
| Knowledge | 2 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 4 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 9 | 23 | 2 ties |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index24
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 75.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 80.6% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1607 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 71.5 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 85.6% | 80.5% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 75.0% | 92.0% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 37.4% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 20.2% | 30.8% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 6.4% | 20.5% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | 0.0% | Tie |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.5% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 53.9% | 62.9% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 16.0% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.2% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.9% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 90.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 51.6% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 38.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 64.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 31.8% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 18.1% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| GSO-Bench | 9.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| WeirdML | 61.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| ALE-Bench | 1367.2 | 303.6 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1507 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1500 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1624 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1577 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1578 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SciCode | 12.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 26.3 | 41.8 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 153.1 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 50.9 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | 1111 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1063 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1090 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1051 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1161 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | 1036 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 70.1% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 84.0% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 28.4% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.8% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 42.5% | 57.9% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 11.8% | 31.6% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 18.3% | 45.2% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 10.4% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 26.0% | 55.9% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.9% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 80.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 52.8% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| BALROG | 48.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 49.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $3,635 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index45
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 87.9% | 86.4% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 77.6% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 87.6% | 86.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.8% | 91.2% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 36.6% | 39.9% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 89.4% | 90.2% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| ARC-AGI | 84.7% | 91.0% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 33.6% | 65.8% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| SimpleBench | 61.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Chess puzzles | 39.0% | 21.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| Mystery game puzzles | 26.0% | 8.0% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| VPCT | 72.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1490 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1511 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1488 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1317 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1318 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index12
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 95.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 93.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AA Math Index | 97.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 97.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 95.6% | 93.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 51.2% | 55.8% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | 17.1% | Tie |
| ProofBench | 15.0% | 21.0% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1503 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1497 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index21
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 88.6% | 86.1% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 86.9% | 83.9% | Gemini 3 Flash Preview |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 66.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 73.9% | 75.6% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 95.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 55.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 89.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | 66.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| GeoBench | 88.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1484 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1475 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1473 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1460 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 63.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1196 | 1272 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 1316 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1166 | 1278 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1262 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1183 | 1316 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1189 | 1282 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 1285 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 1267 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 77.2% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 50.9% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 76.4% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | 51.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 69.9% | 88.9% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Vals Multimodal Index | 52.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| IFBench | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 78.0% | 80.0% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| DTBench | 89.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| LMCA | 43.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 3 Flash Preview measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 52.5% | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1471 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1478 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1441 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1294 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1474 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1462 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1531 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1462 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1444 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1436 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1491 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1475 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1465 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1469 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1481 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1455 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1440 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1295 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1363 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1299 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1279 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1270 | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GLM 5.3 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.0020Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash$0.0004Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.034Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash$0.0090Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 3 Flash Preview$0.130Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash$0.035Fits in one request
GLM 5.3 Flash costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Google Gemini 3 Flash Preview | Z.ai GLM 5.3 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | December 17, 2025 | August 26, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.00 | $0.50 |
| Coding index | 43.7 | 57.7 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.37 | $0.02 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 3 Flash Preview better than GLM 5.3 Flash for coding?
Pick GLM 5.3 Flash for coding: it scores 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index against 43.7 for Gemini 3 Flash Preview. Pick Gemini 3 Flash Preview for work measured by LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or GLM 5.3 Flash?
Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.50 per million input tokens and $3.00 per million output tokens; GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.15 and $0.50. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, Gemini 3 Flash Preview costs $0.37 and GLM 5.3 Flash $0.02.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 3 Flash Preview or GLM 5.3 Flash?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 3 Flash Preview vs GLM 5.3 Flash comparison based on?
34 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemini 3 Flash Preview's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and GLM 5.3 Flash's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.