GLM 4.6 vs GPT-5 Image Mini
GLM 4.6 and GPT-5 Image Mini cost about the same per output token ($2.20 vs $2.00 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- 8.8
- Overall
- 18.5
- Output $/M
- $2.20
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $2.00
GLM 4.6 or GPT-5 Image Mini: which to pick
Only GLM 4.6 has a coding score, 8.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; GPT-5 Image Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GPT-5 Image Mini for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.20 per million) and a larger context window (400K against 205K tokens).
No benchmark has tested both yet. GLM 4.6 has results on SWE-bench Verified, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index; GPT-5 Image Mini on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos. Compare them on price and context instead.
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
Only GLM 4.6 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only GLM 4.6 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 18.5.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GLM 4.6 has a GPQA Diamond result, 74.5%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only GLM 4.6 has a AIME result, 92.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GLM 4.6 has a MMLU Pro result, 82.2%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GLM 4.6 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1174.
Directional only
Image generation
Design Arena: images
No call
Only GPT-5 Image Mini has a Design Arena: images result, 1184.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GPT-5 Image Mini
GPT-5 Image Mini takes 400K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 4.6
GLM 4.6 $0.0017, GPT-5 Image Mini $0.0035 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 4.6 8.8 from 2 benchmarks, GPT-5 Image Mini not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- None yet: no category has been tested on both models.
- Widest single gap
- None yet: no benchmark has tested both models.
- Output price
- GLM 4.6 $2.20 against GPT-5 Image Mini $2.00 per million output tokens, 1.1x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 4.6 takes 205K tokens, GPT-5 Image Mini 400K.
Benchmark by benchmark
Every board either model has a result on, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale. Only one model is measured on each, so no row names a leader.
CodingDirectional onlySix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index12 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 68.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1341 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 45.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 81.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 3.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 28.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 24.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 340.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1449 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1455 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1350 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index1 board measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 18.5 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index5 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1029 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1096 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1084 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1180 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 76.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 74.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 78.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 14.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1440 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1432 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1445 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 92.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 89.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| AA Math Index | 86.0 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1432 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1447 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 82.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 79.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 56.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 66.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 92.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1456 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1455 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1448 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1416 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1174 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1148 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1151 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1161 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1129 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1166 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1109 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index19 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 43.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 54.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1440 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1410 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1412 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1449 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1426 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1499 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1447 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1393 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1400 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1459 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1436 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1418 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1447 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1427 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1422 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1415 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1409 | Not measured | Only GLM 4.6 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 4.6 | GPT-5 Image Mini | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: images | Not measured | 1184 | Only GPT-5 Image Mini measured |
| Design Arena: graphic design | Not measured | 1165 | Only GPT-5 Image Mini measured |
| Design Arena: logos | Not measured | 1209 | Only GPT-5 Image Mini measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 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 4.6 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GLM 4.6 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GLM 4.6 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 4.6 | OpenAI GPT-5 Image Mini |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | OpenAI |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | September 30, 2025 | October 16, 2025 |
| Context window | 205K | 400K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.60 | $2.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $2.20 | $2.00 |
| Coding index | 8.8 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 2 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 4.6 better than GPT-5 Image Mini for coding?
Only GLM 4.6 has a coding score, 8.8 on the Vibe Coding Index; GPT-5 Image Mini has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GPT-5 Image Mini for output tokens 1.1x cheaper ($2.00 vs $2.20 per million) and a larger context window (400K against 205K tokens).
Which is cheaper, GLM 4.6 or GPT-5 Image Mini?
GLM 4.6 costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; GPT-5 Image Mini costs $2.50 and $2.00. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 4.6 or GPT-5 Image Mini?
GPT-5 Image Mini, with 400K tokens against 205K.
Has any benchmark tested both GLM 4.6 and GPT-5 Image Mini?
No benchmark has tested both yet. GLM 4.6 has results on SWE-bench Verified, LMArena WebDev and AA Coding Index; GPT-5 Image Mini on Design Arena: images, Design Arena: graphic design and Design Arena: logos. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 21, 2026.