GLM 5.3 Flash vs Qwen3 30B A3B
GLM 5.3 Flash leads Qwen3 30B A3B on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 41.8 to 7.6, at about the same output price ($0.50 vs $0.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 40 benchmarks have a result for both.
GLM 5.3 Flash or Qwen3 30B A3B: which to pick
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a coding score, 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 30B A3B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
- Shared results
- 40
- GLM 5.3 Flash only
- 62
- Qwen3 30B A3B only
- 12
- 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
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 41.8 against 7.6.
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
No call
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a GPQA Diamond result, 86.4%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a MMLU Pro result, 86.1%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 1272 against 955.
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
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 41K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B
GLM 5.3 Flash $0.0004, Qwen3 30B A3B $0.0004 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has the number, $0.02.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 5.3 Flash 57.7 from 6 benchmarks, Qwen3 30B A3B not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Web design, 42.5 points apart on average over 5 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): GLM 5.3 Flash 80.0% against Qwen3 30B A3B 0.0%, 80.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Both cost $0.50 per million output tokens.
- Context window
- GLM 5.3 Flash takes 1.05M tokens, Qwen3 30B A3B 41K.
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 5.3 Flash | Bars | Qwen3 30B A3B | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 2 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 0 | ||
| Math | 3 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 4 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 5 | 0 | ||
| General | 18 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 40 | 0 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 80.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1607 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| AA Coding Index | 71.5 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 92.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 37.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 30.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | 20.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | 0.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | 52.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | 16.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | 40.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | 67.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| SciCode | 51.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 6.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| FrontierCode | 31.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| FrontierSWE | 18.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 29.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| ALE-Bench | 303.6 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1507 | 1337 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1500 | 1340 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1624 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1577 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1578 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 41.8 | 7.6 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 153.1 | 137.3 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index13 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 50.9 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench research | 70.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench browser | 84.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | 28.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | 0.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | 57.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 31.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 45.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 10.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | 55.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | 2.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | Not measured | 26.0% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| APEX-Agents | 52.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 86.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | 77.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 91.2% | 61.6% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 39.9% | 6.2% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 90.2% | 61.7% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| ARC-AGI | 91.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 65.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Chess puzzles | 21.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 8.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1490 | 1314 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1511 | 1314 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1488 | 1329 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1317 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1318 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | Not measured | 72.3 | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 72.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 93.9% | 62.8% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 55.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 17.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| ProofBench | 21.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1503 | 1355 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1497 | 1363 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 5 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index40
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 83.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 75.6% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1484 | 1321 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1475 | 1318 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1473 | 1314 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1460 | 1309 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1272 | 955 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1316 | 946 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1278 | 899 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1261 | 967 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1316 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1282 | 942 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1284 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1268 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench design | 77.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index180
| Benchmark | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 50.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | 76.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 88.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| IFBench | Not measured | 41.5% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 80.0% | 0.0% | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| DTBench | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 15.8% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 40.6% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Qwen3 30B A3B measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | 52.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1317 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1478 | 1283 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1441 | 1271 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Vision | 1294 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1474 | 1335 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1462 | 1295 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1531 | 1347 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: German | 1462 | 1307 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1444 | 1254 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1436 | 1261 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: French | 1491 | 1352 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1475 | 1317 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1465 | 1291 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1450 | 1299 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1469 | 1307 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1481 | 1312 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1455 | 1290 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1440 | 1258 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1295 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1363 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1299 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1279 | Not measured | Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1270 | Not measured | 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 | GLM 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B | 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 30B A3B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 30B A3B 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 5.3 Flash | Qwen3 30B A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | Qwen |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | August 26, 2026 | April 28, 2025 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 41K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.12 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.50 | $0.50 |
| Coding index | 57.7 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 6 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.02 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 5.3 Flash better than Qwen3 30B A3B for coding?
Only GLM 5.3 Flash has a coding score, 57.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Qwen3 30B A3B has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Compare them on price, context and the boards below.
Which is cheaper, GLM 5.3 Flash or Qwen3 30B A3B?
GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Qwen3 30B A3B costs $0.12 and $0.50. Cost per solved task is known for GLM 5.3 Flash only.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5.3 Flash or Qwen3 30B A3B?
GLM 5.3 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 41K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 5.3 Flash vs Qwen3 30B A3B comparison based on?
40 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GLM 5.3 Flash's coding index rests on 6 independent benchmarks and Qwen3 30B A3B's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.