GLM 4.5 Air vs Sonar
Updated October 21, 2026. 5 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
GLM 4.5 Air has the edge where the context window is larger, 131K against 127K tokens.
- Shared results
- 5
- GLM 4.5 Air only
- 42
- Sonar only
- 0
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air leads, 11.1 against 7.7.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GLM 4.5 Air has a Design Arena: websites result, 1147.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air takes 131K tokens against 127K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air $0.0008, Sonar $0.0015 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 4.5 Air not benchmarked, Sonar not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 38.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run): GLM 4.5 Air 68.4% against Sonar 29.5%, 38.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 4.5 Air $1.10 against Sonar $1.00 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 4.5 Air takes 131K tokens, Sonar 127K.
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 | Sonar | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 5 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 68.4% | 29.5% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 20.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| GSO-Bench | 2.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1397 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1401 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.1 | 7.7 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 46.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 38 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 73.3% | 47.1% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 7.0% | 4.9% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1379 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1370 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1388 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 80.7 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1396 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1396 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.5% | 68.9% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| LMArena Text: science | 1407 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1402 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1382 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1371 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 12 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1147 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1123 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1094 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1186 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1122 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1137 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1071 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 37.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 46.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text | 1384 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1354 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1343 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1397 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1366 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1426 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1377 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1348 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1308 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1400 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1385 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1373 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1368 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1371 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1366 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1354 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1339 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Sonar | 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 | Perplexity Sonar |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | Perplexity |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | July 25, 2025 | January 27, 2025 |
| Context window | 131K | 127K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.20 | $1.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.10 | $1.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 4.5 Air better than Sonar for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. GLM 4.5 Air has the edge where the context window is larger, 131K against 127K tokens.
Which is cheaper, GLM 4.5 Air or Sonar?
GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens; Sonar costs $1.00 and $1.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 4.5 Air or Sonar?
GLM 4.5 Air, with 131K tokens against 127K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 4.5 Air vs Sonar comparison based on?
5 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GLM 4.5 Air's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Sonar's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.