GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
GLM 4.5 Air leads Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.1 to 7.3, and Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs 1.5x less per output token ($0.75 vs $1.10 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 11 benchmarks have a result for both.
GLM 4.5 Air or Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GLM 4.5 Air for work measured by IFBench, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 11
- GLM 4.5 Air only
- 37
- Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct only
- 0
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air leads, 11.1 against 7.3.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GLM 4.5 Air has a Design Arena: websites result, 1146.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct takes 262K tokens against 131K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct
GLM 4.5 Air $0.0008, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 4.5 Air not benchmarked, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Math, 50.0 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AA Math Index: GLM 4.5 Air 80.7 against Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 30.7, 50.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 4.5 Air $1.10 against Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct $0.75 per million output tokens, 1.5x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 4.5 Air takes 131K tokens, Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 262K.
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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Math | 2 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 1 | 0 | ||
| General | 1 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 10 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 68.4% | 35.3% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 20.5% | 3.8% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| 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 34 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 11.1 | 7.3 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 46.5% | 29.2% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 73.3% | 57.9% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 7.0% | 3.8% | 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 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 43.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 80.7 | 30.7 | GLM 4.5 Air |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.7% | 30.7% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| 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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 81.5% | 74.9% | 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 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1146 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.5 Air measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1120 | 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 | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | GLM 4.5 Air | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 37.6% | 39.9% | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 46.7% | 33.3% | GLM 4.5 Air |
| 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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct | 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
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct 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 | Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | July 25, 2025 | October 14, 2025 |
| Context window | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.20 | $0.25 |
| Output $/Mtok | $1.10 | $0.75 |
| 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 Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GLM 4.5 Air for work measured by IFBench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, GLM 4.5 Air or Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?
GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens; Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct costs $0.25 and $0.75. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 4.5 Air or Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct?
Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct, with 262K tokens against 131K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 4.5 Air vs Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct comparison based on?
11 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 Qwen3 VL 8B Instruct's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.