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  5. GLM 4.5 AirvsGLM 5.3 Prime
Updated Sep 2026

GLM 4.5 AirvsGLM 5.3 Prime

GLM 4.5 Air is cheaper than GLM 5.3 Prime at $0.2/M vs $2.8/M input tokens.

GLM 4.5 Air and GLM 5.3 Prime compared across 16 shared prompts
SpecGLM 4.5 AirGLM 5.3 Prime
Input price$0.2/M tokens$2.8/M tokens
Output price$1.1/M tokens$8.8/M tokens
Context window128K tokens1.0M tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJul 2025Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 16 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Mini LBO Underwrite

You are underwriting a 5-year LBO for a private equity investment committee. Company (fictional): HarborTech Services (HTS) –…

GLM 4.5 Air426 words
1. Simplified Year-by-Year Table (FY2026–FY2030) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue ($m) $972 $1,040 $1,102 $1,157 $1,215 EBITDA ($m) $136 $156 $177 $191 $207 EBITDA Margin 14.0% 15.0% 16.0% 16.5% 17.0% Cash Interest ($m) - Term Loan (9.0%) $48.6 $48.1 $47.6 $47.0 $46.4 - Mezzanine (12.0%) $21.6 $21.6…
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GLM 5.3 Prime510 words
HarborTech Services – LBO Underwriting Summary Entry Economics EV = 12.0x × $120m = $1,440m; fees = 2% × 1,440 = $28.8m; total uses = $1,468.8m Debt: Term Loan = 4.0x × 120 = $480m (9% cash, 1%/yr amort); Mezz = 1.5x × 120 = $180m (12% cash + 2% PIK) Sponsor equity = 1,468.8 − 660 = $808.8m (~55% of cap) Annual Model…
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Advanced Longevity Plan (Biohacker)

Develop a comprehensive, cutting-edge 3-month longevity plan for a biohacker aiming to optimize longevity, physical and cognitive…

GLM 4.5 Air1,736 words
Of course. Here is a comprehensive, 3-month, cutting-edge longevity and biohacking plan designed for a dedicated individual. This plan is structured in three distinct phases, each building upon the last to progressively optimize the body's systems for resilience, performance, and longevity.
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GLM 5.3 Prime232 words
3-Month Advanced Longevity Optimization Protocol Disclaimer: This is educational content, not medical advice. Consult a physician before starting supplements, fasting, or intense exercise—especially if you take medications (e.g., statins, blood thinners, diabetes meds) or have chronic conditions.
Read the full answer

Debug This Architecture

Here's the architecture for a real-time collaborative document editor (like Google Docs): **System Overview:** - Frontend: React SPA with…

GLM 4.5 Air839 words
Failure Modes, Race Conditions, and Scaling Bottlenecks Analysis WebSocket Connection Management Issue: WebSocket connections are server-specific, causing connection loss during server failover or scaling events. Solution: Implement a connection pool with automatic reconnection logic in the client.
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GLM 5.3 Prime1,397 words
Architecture Review: Real-Time Collaborative Editor Critical Issues Client-clock timestamps for last-write-wins (LWR) Problem: Client clocks are unreliable (skew, manual changes, timezone bugs). A user with a fast clock always wins; a slow clock's edits are silently dropped.
Read the full answer

Ethical Dilemma with Stakeholders

You're the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Your best-selling drug ($2B annual revenue, used by 4 million patients for chronic pain) has…

GLM 4.5 Air1,260 words
Here is a specific, hour-by-hour action plan designed to navigate this crisis ethically and strategically, prioritizing patient safety while mitigating long-term damage: Core Principles Guiding Decisions: Patient Safety Paramount: Ethical obligation to inform patients and physicians immediately outweighs short-term…
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GLM 5.3 Prime1,847 words
48-Hour Action Plan First, the governing principle One number matters more than all others: 4 million patients × 1/8,000 = ~500 patients at risk of liver failure over 5 years — some may already be experiencing it right now. Every decision below flows from this.
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Explain Like I'm a Specific Expert

Explain how a large language model (like GPT or Claude) learns and generates text to each of these three audiences: 1. **An experienced…

GLM 4.5 Air725 words
How Large Language Models Learn and Generate Text For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of a large language model like GPT as a sophisticated pattern-matching system that's been trained on virtually the entire internet.
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GLM 5.3 Prime1,192 words
The Software Engineer You've probably got a mental model of "predict the next token" as something like autocomplete on your phone — a lookup table with good caching. That intuition is wrong in an interesting way.
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Simple 7-Ingredient Recipe

Create a simple recipe for a delicious dish (sweet or savory) using only 7 common pantry ingredients. Include a creative name for the dish…

GLM 4.5 Air271 words
Pantry Power Pesto Pasta With just 7 shelf-stable ingredients, this creamy, zesty pasta dish comes together in minutes. It’s rich in flavor, budget-friendly, and perfect for busy weeknights!
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GLM 5.3 Prime212 words
Golden Comfort Garlic Butter Pasta A cozy, restaurant-worthy dish made from everyday pantry staples! Ingredients (7 total) Spaghetti (or any pasta) Butter Garlic (3–4 cloves) Olive oil Parmesan cheese (grated) Red pepper flakes Salt Instructions Boil the pasta – Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
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Our Verdict
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 4.5 Air
GLM 5.3 Prime
GLM 5.3 Prime

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, nothing separates them.

GLM 4.5 Air costs 8.0x less per token.

Too close to call
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

GLM 4.5 Air
Input
$0.20
14× cheaper
Output
$1.10
8.0× cheaper
GLM 5.3 Prime
Input
$2.80
Output
$8.80

GLM 4.5 Air is cheaper on both: 14× input, 8.0× output.

Where to run it

4 hosts

GLM 4.5 Air3 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
NNovitabf16$0.13 in·$0.85 out·131k·99.8% upSSiliconFlowfp8degraded$0.14 in·$0.86 out·131k·92.6% upZ.aifp8degraded$0.20 in·$1.10 out·131k·93.9% up
GLM 5.3 Prime1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Alibaba Cloud$2.80 in·$8.80 out·1M·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 25 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

GLM 4.5 Air is developed by Zhipu AI while GLM 5.3 Prime is developed by Z.ai. GLM 4.5 Air has a 128K token context window vs GLM 5.3 Prime's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 16 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. GLM 4.5 Air and GLM 5.3 Prime each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 16 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.2/M input tokens and GLM 5.3 Prime costs $2.8/M input tokens. GLM 4.5 Air is $2.60/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of GLM 4.5 Air and GLM 5.3 Prime across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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