GLM 5 vs Step 3.7 Flash
Updated October 21, 2026. 16 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Only GLM 5 has a coding score, 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.7 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Step 3.7 Flash has the edge where output tokens cost 2.8x less, and where the context window is larger, 262K against 205K tokens.
- Shared results
- 16
- GLM 5 only
- 59
- Step 3.7 Flash only
- 2
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 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, 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
GLM 5
GLM 5 leads, 27.9 against 19.5.
Same board, both measured
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
GLM 5
GLM 5 leads, 1247 against 1196.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Step 3.7 Flash
Step 3.7 Flash takes 262K tokens against 205K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Step 3.7 Flash
GLM 5 $0.0026, Step 3.7 Flash $0.0008 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, Step 3.7 Flash not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Intelligence, 8.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Design Arena: 3D: GLM 5 1229 against Step 3.7 Flash 1129, 12.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- GLM 5 $3.20 against Step 3.7 Flash $1.15 per million output tokens, 2.8x apart.
- Context window
- GLM 5 takes 205K tokens, Step 3.7 Flash 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 5 | Bars | Step 3.7 Flash | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 2 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 7 | 1 | ||
| General | 2 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 14 | 2 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | 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 |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 39.6 | Only Step 3.7 Flash 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 |
| SciCode | Not measured | 43.9% | Only Step 3.7 Flash measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 43.2% | 35.6% | GLM 5 |
| Terminal-Bench | 52.4% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| WeirdML | 48.2% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 765.6 | 694.1 | GLM 5 |
| 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 22 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 27.9 | 19.5 | GLM 5 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 145.8 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | 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 | 1153 | 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% | 98.5% | Step 3.7 Flash |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $4,432 | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 32 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 83.3% | Not measured | Only GLM 5 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 82.0% | 80.9% | GLM 5 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 29.3% | 21.4% | GLM 5 |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | 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, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | 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 7 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index71
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1247 | 1196 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1230 | 1179 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1234 | 1158 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1228 | 1172 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1229 | 1129 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1246 | 1182 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1168 | 1085 | GLM 5 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1146 | 1152 | Step 3.7 Flash |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index20
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 72.3% | 67.3% | GLM 5 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 75.7% | 73.7% | GLM 5 |
| 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 | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | GLM 5 | Step 3.7 Flash | 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
Step 3.7 Flash costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Step 3.7 Flash costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Step 3.7 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.
| Specification | Z.ai GLM 5 | StepFun Step 3.7 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | StepFun |
| Weights | Open weights | Open weights |
| Released | February 11, 2026 | May 28, 2026 |
| Context window | 205K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.00 | $0.20 |
| Output $/Mtok | $3.20 | $1.15 |
| 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 Step 3.7 Flash for coding?
Only GLM 5 has a coding score, 41.7 on the Vibe Coding Index; Step 3.7 Flash has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Step 3.7 Flash has the edge where output tokens cost 2.8x less, and where the context window is larger, 262K against 205K tokens.
Which is cheaper, GLM 5 or Step 3.7 Flash?
GLM 5 costs $1.00 per million input tokens and $3.20 per million output tokens; Step 3.7 Flash costs $0.20 and $1.15. Cost per solved task is known for GLM 5 only.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM 5 or Step 3.7 Flash?
Step 3.7 Flash, with 262K tokens against 205K.
How many benchmarks is the GLM 5 vs Step 3.7 Flash comparison based on?
16 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. GLM 5's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Step 3.7 Flash's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.