GLM 5 vs GLM 5.3 Prime
GLM 5 costs 2.8x less per output token than GLM 5.3 Prime ($3.20 vs $8.80 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; no benchmark has tested both models yet.
- Coding
- 41.7
- Overall
- 54.3
- Output $/M
- $3.20
- Coding
- No data
- Overall
- No data
- Output $/M
- $8.80
GLM 5 or GLM 5.3 Prime: which to pick
Only GLM 5 has a coding score, 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; GLM 5.3 Prime has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick GLM 5.3 Prime for a larger context window (1M against 205K tokens).
No benchmark has tested both yet. GLM 5 has results on SWE-bench Verified, SWE-bench Multilingual and LMArena WebDev; GLM 5.3 Prime has none yet. 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 5 has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only GLM 5 has a AA Intelligence Index result, 27.9.
Directional only
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only GLM 5 has a GPQA Diamond result, 83.3%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only GLM 5 has a AIME result, 91.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only GLM 5 has a MMLU Pro result, 86.0%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only GLM 5 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1247.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
GLM 5.3 Prime
GLM 5.3 Prime takes 1M tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
GLM 5
GLM 5 $0.0026, GLM 5.3 Prime $0.0072 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only GLM 5 has the number, $0.63.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- GLM 5 41.7 from 3 benchmarks, GLM 5.3 Prime 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 5 $3.20 against GLM 5.3 Prime $8.80 per million output tokens, 2.8x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 5 takes 205K tokens, GLM 5.3 Prime 1M.
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 Index14 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 72.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 69.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1435 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 81.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 71.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 23.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 52.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| WeirdML | 48.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.6 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1461 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1460 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1424 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1450 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 25 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 27.9 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | 1123 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1136 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | 1146 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | 1144 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: HTML slides | 1148 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 98.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $4,432 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 29.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 87.8% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| ARC-AGI | 44.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| SimpleBench | 53.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1452 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1454 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1460 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 75.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 91.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 80.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1440 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1451 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 86.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 84.1% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 52.5% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 62.9% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 70.0% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 94.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1460 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1455 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1453 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1430 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1247 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1230 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1234 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1228 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1229 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1246 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1168 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1147 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20 boards measured
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | GLM 5.3 Prime | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 72.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 75.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| CL-bench | 18.7% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1446 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1428 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1438 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1458 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1430 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1511 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1447 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1416 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1423 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1456 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1454 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1436 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1434 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1456 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1446 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1437 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1426 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 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 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
GLM 5 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
GLM 5 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 | Z.ai GLM 5.3 Prime |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | Z.ai |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | February 11, 2026 | September 23, 2026 |
| Context window | 205K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.00 | $2.80 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.20 | $8.80 |
| Coding index | 41.7 | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.63 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is GLM 5 better than GLM 5.3 Prime for coding?
Only GLM 5 has a coding score, 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; GLM 5.3 Prime has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick GLM 5.3 Prime for a larger context window (1M against 205K tokens).
Which is cheaper, GLM 5 or GLM 5.3 Prime?
GLM 5 costs $1.00 per million input tokens and $3.20 per million output tokens; GLM 5.3 Prime costs $2.80 and $8.80. Cost per solved task is known for GLM 5 only.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5 or GLM 5.3 Prime?
GLM 5.3 Prime, with 1M tokens against 205K.
Has any benchmark tested both GLM 5 and GLM 5.3 Prime?
No benchmark has tested both yet. GLM 5 has results on SWE-bench Verified, SWE-bench Multilingual and LMArena WebDev; GLM 5.3 Prime has none yet. Compare them on price and context instead. Data as of October 21, 2026.