GLM 5.3 Flash vs Inkling

Updated October 21, 2026. 90 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.

Replace GLM 5.3 Flash Replace Inkling

GLM 5.3 FlashZ.ai

Coding: 71.0
Overall: 41.8
Output $/M: $0.50

T InklingThinking Machines

Coding: 49.7
Overall: 25.0
Output $/M: $4.05

vs boards won of 90 shared, 2 tied

Decision reading

Pick GLM 5.3 Flash for coding: it scores 71.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 49.7 for Inkling.

Pick Inkling when what matters is LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.

Model AGLM 5.3 FlashZ.ai71.0/1002 independent benchmarks$0.02 per solved task Model BInklingThinking Machines49.7/1002 independent benchmarks$0.76 per solved task

901212

Shared results: 90
GLM 5.3 Flash only: 12
Inkling only: 12
Like-for-like categories: 8 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, four public coding benchmarks
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash scores 71.0 against 49.7.
2 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 41.8 against 25.0.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 50.9 against 22.5.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
Inkling
Inkling leads, 87.1% against 86.4%.
Same board, both measured
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
Inkling
Inkling leads, 86.3% against 86.1%.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 1272 against 1224.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash leads, 50.9% against 29.0%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash takes 1.05M tokens against 524K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash $0.0004, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
GLM 5.3 Flash
GLM 5.3 Flash $0.02, Inkling $0.76.
Published attempt cost and pass rate

At a glance

Coding index: GLM 5.3 Flash 71.0 from 2 benchmarks, Inkling 49.7 from 2 benchmarks.
Widest category: Agentic work, 19.0 points apart on average over 11 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap: LiveBench browser: GLM 5.3 Flash 84.0% against Inkling 16.0%, 68.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price: GLM 5.3 Flash $0.50 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 8.1x apart.
Context window: GLM 5.3 Flash takes 1.05M tokens, Inkling 524K.

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.

Boards won, where both have a result
Category	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Ties
Coding	19	2	1 tie
Intelligence	2	0
Agentic work	11	0
Reasoning	9	2	1 tie
Math	6	0
Knowledge	6	1
Web design	9	0
General	20	1
All shared boards	82	6	2 ties

CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index192

Coding benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
LiveBench coding	80.6%	64.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena WebDev	1607	1414	GLM 5.3 Flash
AA Coding Index	71.5	52.1	GLM 5.3 Flash
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)	80.5%	85.5%	Inkling
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)	92.0%	77.6%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)	37.4%	0.5%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)	30.8%	19.2%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Code migration (Vals AI)	20.5%	11.8%	GLM 5.3 Flash
ProgramBench (Vals AI)	0.0%	0.0%	Tie
IOI (Vals AI)	52.5%	14.9%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)	62.9%	47.6%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI)	16.0%	7.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
SkillsBench (Vals AI)	40.2%	26.1%	GLM 5.3 Flash
CyberBench (Vals AI)	67.9%	66.8%	GLM 5.3 Flash
SciCode	51.6%	47.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
FrontierCode	31.8%	14.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
FrontierSWE	18.1%	4.1%	GLM 5.3 Flash
WeirdML	Not measured	32.3%	Only Inkling measured
ALE-Bench	303.6	946.0	Inkling
LMArena Text: coding	1507	1466	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: software and IT	1500	1465	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena WebDev: React	1624	1404	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena WebDev: HTML	1577	1399	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena WebDev: from an image	1578	Not measured	Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured
Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here

IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20

Intelligence benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
AA Intelligence Index	41.8	25.0	GLM 5.3 Flash
Epoch Capabilities Index	153.1	148.4	GLM 5.3 Flash

Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index110

Agentic work benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
AA Agentic Index	50.9	22.5	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: agents building web apps	Not measured	1196	Only Inkling measured
LiveBench research	70.1%	59.9%	GLM 5.3 Flash
LiveBench browser	84.0%	16.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
LiveBench long agentic	28.4%	14.1%	GLM 5.3 Flash
SREBench (Vals AI)	0.8%	0.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Finance Agent (Vals AI)	57.9%	46.6%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)	31.6%	15.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)	45.2%	28.4%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)	10.4%	3.8%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)	55.9%	38.4%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI)	2.9%	Not measured	Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured
APEX-Agents	52.8%	33.8%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here

ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index92

Reasoning benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
GPQA Diamond	86.4%	87.1%	Inkling
LiveBench reasoning	77.6%	78.3%	Inkling
MMMU Pro (Vals AI)	86.0%	78.5%	GLM 5.3 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)	91.2%	87.2%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)	39.9%	31.9%	GLM 5.3 Flash
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)	90.2%	88.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
ARC-AGI	91.0%	79.5%	GLM 5.3 Flash
ARC-AGI-2	65.8%	36.5%	GLM 5.3 Flash
SimpleBench	Not measured	50.0%	Only Inkling measured
Chess puzzles	21.0%	21.0%	Tie
Mystery game puzzles	8.0%	Not measured	Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts	1490	1451	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: expert	1511	1466	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English	1488	1448	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 5 boards here

MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60

Math benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
OTIS Mock AIME	93.9%	88.9%	GLM 5.3 Flash
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3	55.8%	33.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
FrontierMath, tier 4	17.1%	4.9%	GLM 5.3 Flash
ProofBench	21.0%	0.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: math	1503	1479	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: mathematical work	1497	1460	GLM 5.3 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here

KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index61

Knowledge benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
MMLU Pro	86.1%	86.3%	Inkling
LegalBench (Vals AI)	83.9%	83.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
CorpFin (Vals AI)	Not measured	68.6%	Only Inkling measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)	75.6%	75.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
MortgageTax (Vals AI)	Not measured	64.0%	Only Inkling measured
MedCode (Vals AI)	Not measured	41.2%	Only Inkling measured
SimpleQA Verified	Not measured	40.3%	Only Inkling measured
LMArena Text: science	1484	1455	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare	1475	1447	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: legal and government	1473	1448	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: business and finance	1460	1438	GLM 5.3 Flash
Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here

Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index90

Web design benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
Design Arena: websites	1272	1224	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: UI components	1316	1200	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: game dev	1279	1166	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: data viz	1262	1160	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: 3D	1316	1161	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: all code categories	1282	1206	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: SVG	1284	1109	GLM 5.3 Flash
Design Arena: ASCII art	1269	1089	GLM 5.3 Flash
LiveBench design	77.2%	58.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash

GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index201

General benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	Leader
Vals Index	50.9%	29.0%	GLM 5.3 Flash
LiveBench data analysis	76.4%	72.8%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)	Not measured	58.5%	Only Inkling measured
SAGE (Vals AI)	Not measured	36.5%	Only Inkling measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)	88.9%	85.4%	GLM 5.3 Flash
Vals Multimodal Index	Not measured	49.4%	Only Inkling measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)	80.0%	77.3%	GLM 5.3 Flash
DTBench	Not measured	87.5%	Only Inkling measured
LMCA	Not measured	37.6%	Only Inkling measured
Surface Evolver Bench	52.5%	Not measured	Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured
LMArena Text	1471	1442	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: instruction following	1478	1425	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: creative writing	1441	1390	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Vision	1294	Not measured	Only GLM 5.3 Flash measured
LMArena Text: English	1474	1442	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: non-English	1462	1434	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Chinese	1531	1493	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: German	1462	1445	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Japanese	1444	1429	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Korean	1436	1403	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: French	1491	1455	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Spanish	1475	1449	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Russian	1465	1430	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: Polish	1450	1450	Inkling
LMArena Text: multi-turn	1469	1437	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: longer queries	1481	1435	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: writing and language	1455	1404	GLM 5.3 Flash
LMArena Text: entertainment and media	1440	1394	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

Image generation benchmarks for GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Benchmark	GLM 5.3 Flash	Inkling	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 5.3 Flash$0.0004Fits in one request

Inkling$0.0030Fits in one request

GLM 5.3 Flash costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

GLM 5.3 Flash$0.0090Fits in one request

Inkling$0.062Fits in one request

GLM 5.3 Flash costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

GLM 5.3 Flash$0.035Fits in one request

Inkling$0.240Fits in one request

GLM 5.3 Flash 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.

Specifications of GLM 5.3 Flash and Inkling
Specification	Z.ai GLM 5.3 Flash	Thinking Machines Inkling
Maker	Z.ai	Thinking Machines
Weights	Open weights	Open weights
Released	August 26, 2026	July 17, 2026
Context window	1.05M	524K
Input $/Mtok	$0.15	$1.00
Output $/Mtok	$0.50	$4.05
Coding index	71.0	49.7
Independent measurements behind it	2	2
Cost per solved task	$0.02	$0.76
Source	OpenRouter listing	OpenRouter listing

Questions

Is GLM 5.3 Flash better than Inkling for coding?

Pick GLM 5.3 Flash for coding: it scores 71.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 49.7 for Inkling. Pick Inkling when what matters is LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.

Which is cheaper, GLM 5.3 Flash or Inkling?

GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $1.00 and $4.05. Per solved SWE-bench Verified task, GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.02 and Inkling $0.76.

Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5.3 Flash or Inkling?

GLM 5.3 Flash, with 1.05M tokens against 524K.

How many benchmarks is the GLM 5.3 Flash vs Inkling comparison based on?

90 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GLM 5.3 Flash's coding index rests on 2 independent benchmarks and Inkling's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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<iframe src="https://llmbenchmark.ai/embed/compare/glm-5-3-flash-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling" title="GLM 5.3 Flash vs Inkling, LLMBenchmark.ai" width="100%" height="360" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p style="font:13px/1.4 sans-serif;margin:6px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://llmbenchmark.ai/compare/glm-5-3-flash-vs-thinkingmachines-inkling">LLMBenchmark.ai, GLM 5.3 Flash vs Inkling</a></p>

Decision reading

Which one for your work

Coding

Intelligence

Agentic work

Reasoning

Knowledge

Web design

General

Long documents

Everyday cost

Cost per solved task

At a glance

Benchmark by benchmark

What each workload costs

Chat turn

Repository review

Agent loop

Specification differences

Questions

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