GLM-5.3-Flash, the Zhipu AI (Z.ai) model in numbers
GLM-5.3-Flash in numbers: price per token, context window, independent benchmark scores and comparable models, based on public data checked on October 22, 2026.
Data as of October 22, 2026
Key figures
| Developer | Zhipu AI (Z.ai) |
|---|---|
| Released | September 18, 2026 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (≈ 1,500 pages) |
| Maximum output | 131,072 tokens |
| Input price | $0.30 per million tokens (developer's price) |
| Output price | $1.05 per million tokens |
| Open weights | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes |
| Structured output (JSON) | Yes |
| Accepted inputs | text, image, video, PDF |
| Providers offering it | 81 |
| Capability index | 71.9 / 100 |
What you need to know
Released on September 18, 2026, GLM-5.3-Flash is one of the 6 Zhipu AI (Z.ai) models tracked on this site. Its weights are published: you can download it and run it on your own servers, or use one of the 81 API providers that list it on models.dev. It has a reasoning mode: it can "think" before answering, which helps with multi-step problems but uses more tokens, and therefore more money. It is a very recent release.
We file it under open-weight models (68 models in this category on the site).
Benchmark results
According to results published by Epoch AI (checked on October 22, 2026), GLM-5.3-Flash has a capability index of 71.9 out of 100, computed on 5 benchmarks from our basket.
It is not among the top 30 of the weekly ranking.
- GPQA Diamond (PhD-level science questions): 90.2% — the best tracked model, Gemini 4 Argon, reaches 96.4%
- OTIS Mock AIME (competition mathematics problems): 93.9% — the best tracked model, GPT-5.5 Pro, reaches 100%
- FrontierMath (very hard research-level mathematics): 55.8% — the best tracked model, GPT-6 Astra, reaches 93.7%
- FrontierCode (advanced programming tasks): 31.8% — the best tracked model, Claude Opus 5.5, reaches 54.6%
What it can do
Its context window reaches 1,000,000 tokens, roughly 1,500 pages of text at 500 words per page: enough to load a whole book or a mid-sized codebase. A single answer can run to 131,072 tokens.
It accepts as input: text, image, video and PDF.
It can call tools (functions, APIs) and return structured JSON output, which makes it a possible foundation for an AI agent.
The weights are published on Hugging Face (zai-org/GLM-5.3-Flash). See also our list of open-source models.
How much does GLM-5.3-Flash cost?
GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.05 per million output tokens (developer's price, checked on October 22, 2026).
To put it in perspective: reading 20,000 tokens (about thirty pages) and writing 2,000 costs roughly $0.008; a thousand of those tasks, $8.07.
That is in line with open-weight models, whose median output price is $1.
Tokens read back from cache cost $0.085 per million, which helps an agent that keeps resending the same context.
To estimate your own budget, use the agent cost calculator.
Who is it for?
Given its category, GLM-5.3-Flash is mainly aimed at projects where you want control over your data or hosting, or want to adapt the model to your field.
Its very large context window makes it worth considering for analysing large sets of documents in a single request.
Before adopting it, test it on your own examples: benchmarks measure standard tasks, not your job.
Comparable models
In the same category, the models closest to GLM-5.3-Flash are:
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (DeepSeek, index 72.2) — see the comparison
- Qwen3.6 27B (Alibaba Cloud (Qwen), index 72.2) — see the comparison
- GLM-5.1 (Zhipu AI (Z.ai), index 70.9) — see the comparison
- GLM-5.2 (Zhipu AI (Z.ai), index 70.5)
Independent benchmark scores
| Benchmark | What it measures | Score |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | PhD-level science questions | 90.2% |
| OTIS Mock AIME | competition mathematics problems | 93.9% |
| FrontierMath | very hard research-level mathematics | 55.8% |
| FrontierCode | advanced programming tasks | 31.8% |
| APEX-Agents | professional tasks carried out by an agent | 52.8% |
Similar models
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 · DeepSeek · index 72.2 · Compare GLM-5.3-Flash and DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813
- Qwen3.6 27B · Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) · index 72.2 · Compare GLM-5.3-Flash and Qwen3.6 27B
- GLM-5.1 · Zhipu AI (Z.ai) · index 70.9 · Compare GLM-5.3-Flash and GLM-5.1
- GLM-5.2 · Zhipu AI (Z.ai) · index 70.5
Comparisons
Other Zhipu AI (Z.ai) models
Frequently asked questions
How much does GLM-5.3-Flash cost?
As of October 22, 2026, GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.05 per million output tokens (developer's price). A task that reads 20,000 tokens and writes 2,000 costs about $0.008.
What is the context window of GLM-5.3-Flash?
1,000,000 tokens, roughly 1,500 pages of text. An answer can reach 131,072 tokens.
Is GLM-5.3-Flash open source?
Its weights are published: you can install it on your own servers. Check the license before commercial use.
How good is GLM-5.3-Flash?
Its capability index is 71.9 out of 100 (5 benchmarks, Epoch AI data).
Can you build an agent with GLM-5.3-Flash?
Yes: it can call tools and return structured JSON, the two basic building blocks of an agent.
Data sources
- Models.dev — Model data: models.dev (open-source project)
- OpenRouter — Market prices cross-checked with OpenRouter
- Epoch AI — AI Benchmarking Hub — Epoch AI, “AI Benchmarking Hub”, epoch.ai, CC BY 4.0
- Epoch AI — Data on AI Models — Epoch AI, “Data on AI Models”, epoch.ai, CC BY 4.0
- Hugging Face Hub — Data: Hugging Face Hub
Data as of October 22, 2026
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