Model comparison

GLM-4.6 vs GLM-5.3

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 40.9 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.6 costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 22 shared benchmarks.

GLM-4.6 Z.ai (Zhipu)

40.9

Rank #132 Confirmed

GLM-5.3 Z.ai (Zhipu)

54.6

Rank #25 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 22 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-4.6 scores higher in 0 categories and GLM-5.3 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5.3 leads 62.1 to 36.4.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is SciCode: 38.4% for GLM-4.6 and 59% for GLM-5.3.
  • GLM-4.6 is cheaper at $0.60 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
  • GLM-5.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

GLM-4.6 and GLM-5.3 specifications
GLM-4.6GLM-5.3
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Z.ai (Zhipu)
Noometry Index40.954.6
Released2025-09-302026-08-14
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window205K1M
Max output131K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.60$1.40
Output $ / M tokens$2.20$4.40
Results tracked2941

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 39.9 (#137), GLM-5.3: 59.0 (#12)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena WebDev13391623
SciCode38.4%59%
LMArena Coding14491499
ALE-Bench340.821,317
DeepSWE—69%
FrontierCode—40.1%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)55.4%—
FrontierSWE—30.2%
WeirdML—75.4%

Agentic & Tool Use GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 32.1 (#60), GLM-5.3: 36.3 (#34)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
Terminal-Bench24.5%—
APEX-Agents—56.6%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard72.4%—
Vending-Bench 2—8,164

Reasoning GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 23.1 (#168), GLM-5.3: 45.2 (#42)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
CritPt1.1%19.1%
LMArena Hard Prompts14401491
Kagi LLM Benchmark47.4%—
NYT Connections (extended)—74.2%
Chess Puzzles—21%
Mystery Game Puzzles—33%
DTBench—87.7%
LMCA—55.5%
Bench to the Future 3—0.15
Epoch Capabilities Index—155.56

Math GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 36.4 (#115), GLM-5.3: 62.1 (#27)

Knowledge GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 39.6 (#118), GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#34)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena Expert14321512
GPQA Diamond—90.9%
SimpleQA Verified—41%
Vectara Hallucination Rate9.5%—

Multilingual GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 53.6 (#62), GLM-5.3: 55.9 (#27)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena Non-English14261457
LMArena Chinese15001523
LMArena French14591499
LMArena German14471505
LMArena Japanese13941438
LMArena Korean14011478
LMArena Russian14181460
LMArena Spanish14361444

Instruction Following GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 74.5 (#93), GLM-5.3: 77.8 (#15)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena Instruction Following14101481

Long Context GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 43.4 (#91), GLM-5.3: 45.5 (#32)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena Longer Query14231485

Writing & Preference GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-4.6: 61.3 (#86), GLM-5.3: 75.9 (#6)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6GLM-5.3
LMArena Text14401473
LMArena Creative Writing14111459
EQ-Bench Creative Writing14112075
LMArena Multi-Turn14271473

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-4.6 better than GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 40.9 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.6 costs 2.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-4.6 or GLM-5.3?

GLM-4.6 is cheaper. It lists at $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

Is GLM-4.6 or GLM-5.3 better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.0 versus 39.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM-5.3 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-4.6 and GLM-5.3 share?

22 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-4.6 has 29 scored results on Noometry and GLM-5.3 has 41.

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