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  5. GLM 4.5vsGLM 5.3
Updated Aug 2026

GLM 4.5vsGLM 5.3

GLM 4.5 is cheaper than GLM 5.3 at $0.6/M vs $0.6538/M input tokens.

GLM 4.5 and GLM 5.3 compared across 13 shared prompts
SpecGLM 4.5GLM 5.3
Input price$0.6/M tokens$0.6538/M tokens
Output price$2.2/M tokens$2.0548/M tokens
Context window128K tokens1.3M tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJul 2025Aug 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 13 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Historical Counterfactual Analysis

If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, trace the likely technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through…

GLM 4.51,983 words
The Transistor Revolution: A 1920 Dawn (Implications through 1980) The invention of the transistor in 1920, instead of 1947, represents a seismic shift in technological history. This 27-year head start would profoundly reshape the 20th century, accelerating innovation while creating unforeseen challenges.
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GLM 5.31,346 words
If the Transistor Had Arrived in 1920 The Premise: Why 1920 Was Nearly Impossible Before tracing effects, note the counterfactual requires heroic assumptions. The transistor depended on quantum mechanics (solid-state band theory, ~1928-1933), ultrapure semiconductor materials (zone refining, 1950s), and wartime radar…
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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 4.51,863 words
Here’s a rigorous, ethical, and actionable 48-hour plan grounded in patient safety, legal compliance, and long-term survival. Core Principle: Prioritize human life over short-term financials. Delaying disclosure is unethical, legally reckless, and guarantees greater long-term damage.
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GLM 5.31,143 words
The Core Decision (Made Before Hour 1) The side effect is real, serious, and known to me now. Patients are currently taking this drug without informed consent about a ~1-in-8,000 liver failure risk. Everything else — stock price, board pressure, legal exposure — is secondary.
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Debug This Architecture

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

GLM 4.5847 words
Failure Modes, Race Conditions, and Scaling Bottlenecks 1. WebSocket Server Failure Issue: If a Node.js server fails, all connected clients lose real-time updates. Reconnections may route users to different servers, causing temporary data inconsistency.
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GLM 5.31,311 words
Architecture Review: Real-Time Collaborative Editor This design has serious issues across correctness, performance, and security. Let me break them down by severity. 🔴 Critical: Correctness / Data Loss Client-clock-based Last-Write-Wins (LWW) Problem: Client clocks are unreliable (skew, manual changes, timezone bugs).
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Startup Pitch Teardown

Here's a pitch deck summary for a startup called "MindMeld AI": **Slide 1 - Vision:** "We're building the future of human-AI collaboration.…

GLM 4.5871 words
Based on the pitch deck summary, here are the 3 weakest claims, with explanations and concrete suggestions for strengthening them: Weak Claim 1: Slide 3 - "94% Accuracy" Why it's weak: Extraordinarily high accuracy claims in BCI, especially non-invasive EEG for complex text generation, lack context and seem implausible…
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GLM 5.3585 words
3 Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch "Reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it" Why it's weak: This claim is neurologically incoherent. EEG sensors detect electrical activity on the scalp after neural firing occurs — you cannot decode intent "before" the brain generates it.
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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 4.5209 words
Pantry Pride Pasta A quick, savory pasta dish that transforms basic pantry staples into a flavorful meal! Ingredients (7): Pasta (e.g., spaghetti or penne) Olive oil Garlic (2-3 cloves, minced) Canned diced tomatoes (1 can, ~14 oz) Dried oregano (1 tsp) Salt (to taste) Black pepper (to taste) Instructions: Cook pasta…
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GLM 5.3210 words
Golden Pantry Fried Rice Total Time: 20 minutes (5 min prep, 15 min cook) Ingredients (7 pantry staples) Cooked white rice (day-old is best) Eggs Soy sauce Garlic (minced or garlic powder) Frozen peas and carrots Canned corn Vegetable oil Instructions Prep (5 min): Break up cold rice with a fork. Drain the corn.
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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 4.5668 words
For the Experienced Software Engineer (Distributed Systems/APIs Background) Think of an LLM as a massively parallel "routing engine" for language, where attention mechanisms act like dynamic load balancers. Instead of routing network packets, it routes contextual relationships across tokens in a sequence.
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GLM 5.31,164 words
The Software Engineer You've probably written autocomplete logic before, so you're right to be skeptical of the naive version: a Markov chain that looks up "what usually comes after 'the'" is trivially dumb.
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Our Verdict
GLM 5.3
GLM 5.3
GLM 4.5
GLM 4.5Runner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, GLM 5.3 has the edge: newer, bigger context window.

Too close to call
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

GLM 4.5
Input
$0.60
1.1× cheaper
Output
$2.20
GLM 5.3
Input
$0.65
Output
$2.05
1.1× cheaper

GLM 4.5 wins input (1.1× cheaper)·GLM 5.3 wins output (1.1× cheaper)

Where to run it

31 hosts, cheapest first

GLM 4.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Z.aifp8$0.60 in·$2.20 out·131k·100% up
GLM 5.330 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
Baidu Qianfanfp8$0.65 in·$2.05 out·1M·99.8% upMMorph$0.71 in·$2.24 out·1M·99.8% upRRekafp8$0.76 in·$2.57 out·262k·99.4% upSSail Researchfp8$0.77 in·$4.00 out·1M·99.9% upNNovitafp8$0.78 in·$2.46 out·1M·99.9% upIio.netfp8$0.82 in·$2.77 out·262k·99.7% up
24 more hostsFewer hosts
PPhala$0.84 in·$2.64 out·1M·99.5% upDDeepInfrafp4$0.90 in·$3.00 out·1M·98% upIInferenceNetfp4$0.90 in·$3.00 out·1M·98% upDDigitalOcean$0.91 in·$2.86 out·1M·99.8% upIInceptronfp4$1.04 in·$3.39 out·1M·99.4% upGGMI Cloudfp8$1.05 in·$3.30 out·1M·99.5% upMMakorafp4$1.05 in·$4.20 out·980k·97.3% upSSiliconFlowfp8$1.12 in·$3.52 out·1M·99.7% upAlibaba Cloud$1.19 in·$3.74 out·1M·100% upDDecartfp4$1.19 in·$3.74 out·1M·99.1% upFFriendli$1.26 in·$3.96 out·1M·100% upAAkashMLfp8$1.30 in·$4.40 out·1M·100% upAAtlasCloudfp8$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.4% upBBasetenfp4$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.7% upCloudflare Workers AI$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1.3M·99.8% upCCrusoefp4$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·98.3% upFFireworks$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.5% upMistralnvfp4$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.7% upModal$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99% upPParasailfp8$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.1% upTTogether$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·98.1% upVVenice$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·98.8% upWWafer$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.9% upZ.aifp8$1.40 in·$4.40 out·1M·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 22 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Both are developed by Zhipu AI but target different use cases. GLM 4.5 has a 128K token context window vs GLM 5.3's 1.3M. You can compare their actual outputs across 13 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. GLM 4.5 and GLM 5.3 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 13 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

GLM 4.5 costs $0.6/M input tokens and GLM 5.3 costs $0.6538/M input tokens. GLM 4.5 is $0.05/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 and GLM 5.3 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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