GLM 4.5 Air vs GPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 leads GLM 4.5 Air on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 12.7 to 11.1, and GLM 4.5 Air costs 7.3x less per output token ($1.10 vs $8.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 46 benchmarks have a result for both.
GLM 4.5 Air or GPT-4.1: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GLM 4.5 Air for output tokens 7.3x cheaper ($1.10 vs $8.00 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 46
- GLM 4.5 Air only
- 2
- GPT-4.1 only
- 46
- 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
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 leads, 12.7 against 11.1.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GPT-4.1 has a GPQA Diamond result, 65.4%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only GPT-4.1 has a AIME result, 39.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GPT-4.1 has a MMLU Pro result, 80.5%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air leads, 1146 against 1038.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-4.1
GPT-4.1 takes 1.05M tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air $0.0008, GPT-4.1 $0.0060 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only GPT-4.1 has the number, $0.37.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 4.5 Air not benchmarked, GPT-4.1 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 25.6 points apart on average over 4 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AA Math Index: GLM 4.5 Air 80.7 against GPT-4.1 34.7, 46.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 4.5 Air $1.10 against GPT-4.1 $8.00 per million output tokens, 7.3x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 4.5 Air takes 131K tokens, GPT-4.1 1.05M.
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 | GLM 4.5 Air | Bars | GPT-4.1 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 4 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 3 | 3 | ||
| Math | 4 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 1 | ||
| Web design | 6 | 0 | ||
| General | 6 | 13 | ||
| All shared boards | 27 | 19 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index40
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aider polyglot | Not measured | 52.4% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified | Not measured | 39.6% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal | Not measured | 31.1% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 54.7% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 68.4% | 45.7% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 20.5% | 13.6% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| GSO-Bench | 2.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 39.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 558.1 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1397 | 1390 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1401 | 1391 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| SciCode | Not measured | 4.6% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.1 | 12.7 | GPT-4.1 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 136.7 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 46.5% | 47.1% | GPT-4.1 |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) | Not measured | 54.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| BrowseComp-Plus | Not measured | 36.4% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 65.4% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 72.4% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 73.3% | 66.6% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 7.0% | 4.2% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 66.9% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 5.5% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 0.4% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 27.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 3.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1379 | 1384 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1370 | 1364 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1388 | 1393 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1215 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1248 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 43.0% | 52.3% | GPT-4.1 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 39.6% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MATH 500 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.2% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.7% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| AA Math Index | 80.7 | 34.7 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.7% | 34.7% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 38.3% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 6.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MATH level 5 | Not measured | 83.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1396 | 1369 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1396 | 1360 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index41
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 80.5% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.1% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 69.9% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 63.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.1% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.9% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 91.2% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.5% | 80.6% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 31.1% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| GeoBench | Not measured | 72.0% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1407 | 1382 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1402 | 1379 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1382 | 1399 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1371 | 1369 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | Not measured | 45.8% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1146 | 1038 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1120 | 997 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1094 | 1079 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1186 | 1104 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1122 | 849 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1137 | 1025 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1071 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index613
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 37.6% | 43.0% | GPT-4.1 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 46.7% | 68.3% | GPT-4.1 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 68.3% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 25.6% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 63.9% | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1384 | 1383 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1354 | 1367 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | 1363 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1210 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1397 | 1392 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1366 | 1370 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1426 | 1382 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: German | 1377 | 1381 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1348 | 1319 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1308 | 1338 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: French | 1400 | 1382 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1385 | 1376 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1373 | 1377 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1368 | 1389 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1371 | 1397 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1366 | 1385 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1354 | 1371 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1339 | 1365 | GPT-4.1 |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1209 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1226 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1218 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1196 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | Not measured | 1207 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | Not measured | 1208 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1210 | Only GPT-4.1 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | GPT-4.1 | 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
GLM 4.5 Air costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GLM 4.5 Air costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GLM 4.5 Air 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 | Z.ai GLM 4.5 Air | OpenAI GPT-4.1 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 25, 2025 | April 14, 2025 |
| Context window | 131K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.20 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.10 | $8.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.37 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 4.5 Air better than GPT-4.1 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GLM 4.5 Air for output tokens 7.3x cheaper ($1.10 vs $8.00 per million) and work measured by AA Intelligence Index or τ²-Bench Telecom, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GLM 4.5 Air or GPT-4.1?
GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens; GPT-4.1 costs $2.00 and $8.00. Cost per solved task is known for GPT-4.1 only.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 4.5 Air or GPT-4.1?
GPT-4.1, with 1.05M tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 4.5 Air vs GPT-4.1 comparison based on?
46 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. GLM 4.5 Air's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and GPT-4.1's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.