Model comparison
GLM-5.3 vs Qwen Plus
GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 3.6× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.
Last verified . 17 shared benchmarks.
Alibaba (Qwen)Summary
- They share 17 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.3 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen Plus in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5.3 leads 62.3 to 23.3.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 91.1% for GLM-5.3 and 17.8% for Qwen Plus.
- Qwen Plus is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
- GLM-5.3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Z.ai (Zhipu) | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 54.8 | 37.1 |
| Released | 2026-08-14 | 2024-01-25 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 131K | 33K |
| Input $ / M tokens | $1.40 | $0.40 |
| Output $ / M tokens | $4.40 | $1.20 |
| Results tracked | 42 | 20 |
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Category by category
Coding GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 59.5 (#14), Qwen Plus: 38.9 (#167)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1496 | 1328 |
| DeepSWE | 69% | — |
| FrontierCode | 40.1% | — |
| CursorBench | 42.6% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1622 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 30.2% | — |
| SciCode | 59% | — |
| WeirdML | 75.4% | — |
| ALE-Bench | 1,317 | — |
Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable
GLM-5.3: 36.4 (#38), Qwen Plus: —
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 56.6% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 8,164 | — |
Reasoning GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 46.1 (#46), Qwen Plus: 28.4 (#107)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1489 | 1317 |
| DTBench | 87.7% | 81.1% |
| LMCA | 55.5% | 24% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 63.3% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 74.2% | — |
| CritPt | 19.1% | — |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 33% | — |
| Bench to the Future 3 | 0.15 | — |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.61 | — |
Math GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 62.3 (#33), Qwen Plus: 23.3 (#271)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | 17.8% |
| LMArena Math | 1489 | 1326 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 68.8% | — |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 29.3% | — |
| ProofBench | 49% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 65.3% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 1.7% |
Knowledge GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#37), Qwen Plus: 27.4 (#251)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | 48.1% |
| LMArena Expert | 1516 | 1328 |
| SimpleQA Verified | 41% | — |
Multilingual GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 55.7 (#28), Qwen Plus: 45.1 (#175)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1457 | 1310 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1528 | 1347 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1453 | 1251 |
| LMArena Russian | 1463 | 1323 |
| LMArena French | 1499 | — |
| LMArena German | 1499 | — |
| LMArena Korean | 1472 | — |
| LMArena Spanish | 1460 | — |
Instruction Following GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 77.5 (#23), Qwen Plus: 68.8 (#181)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1477 | 1303 |
Long Context GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 45.4 (#41), Qwen Plus: 40.3 (#158)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1482 | 1324 |
Writing & Preference GLM-5.3 leads
GLM-5.3: 75.7 (#6), Qwen Plus: 52.2 (#176)
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | Qwen Plus |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1326 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1457 | 1293 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1472 | 1336 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 2075 | — |
Frequently asked questions
Is GLM-5.3 better than Qwen Plus?
GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 37.1 on the Noometry Index. Qwen Plus costs 3.6× 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-5.3 or Qwen Plus?
Qwen Plus is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.
Is GLM-5.3 or Qwen Plus better for coding?
GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.5 versus 38.9 in the Noometry coding category.
Which has the bigger context window?
Both accept 1M tokens.
How many benchmarks do GLM-5.3 and Qwen Plus share?
17 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.3 has 42 scored results on Noometry and Qwen Plus has 20.