GLM-5.3-Flash — API Pricing & Benchmarks
GLM-5.3-Flash is Zhipu AI (Z.ai)'s mid reasoning model, released in 2026-08. The API costs $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.50 per 1M output tokens ($0.24 blended at a 3:1 ratio), with cached input at $0.03. It supports a 1M-token context window. On the independently measured Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index it scores 57.5, ranking #12 of 68 models tracked on this site, with a median output speed of 45 tokens/sec.
Explore provider routes and additional benchmark sources for GLM-5.3-Flash
| Provider | Zhipu AI (Z.ai) |
| Input price / 1M tokens | $0.15 |
| Output price / 1M tokens | $0.50 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.03 |
| Blended price (3:1) | $0.24 |
| Context window | 1M |
| Max output tokens | — |
| Knowledge cutoff | — |
| License | open weights |
| Input modalities | T+I |
| Output speed (tok/s) | 45 |
| Released | 2026-08 |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 57.5 |
| LMArena Elo | 1471 |
| GPQA Diamond | 91.2% |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 39.9% |
Where GLM-5.3-Flash fits
On a blended 3:1 basis GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.24 per 1M tokens, cheaper than 94% of the 80 priced models in this index. It sits in the mid-tier bracket where most production chat, RAG and summarization workloads run: meaningfully cheaper than flagships while keeping most of their capability. Measured output speed of 45 tokens/sec is below the index median of 104 — typical of reasoning-heavy models, and worth checking against interactive latency budgets. The weights are open, so it can be self-hosted for data-residency or cost reasons instead of consumed via API. Cached input is priced at $0.03 (80% below standard input), which rewards prompt structures with long stable prefixes — see our caching guide.
Price history
| Period | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Cached $/1M |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-26 → current | $0.15 | $0.50 | $0.03 |
No list-price changes recorded since tracking began. Full dataset: price-history.json (CC BY 4.0).
Alternatives at a similar price
- Qwen3.8-Flash (Alibaba Qwen) — $0.23/1M blended, AA Index 55.8
- GPT-4o mini (OpenAI) — $0.26/1M blended, AA Index 6.7
- Mistral Small 4 (Mistral AI) — $0.26/1M blended, AA Index 19.7
- Solar Pro 3 (Upstage) — $0.26/1M blended, AA Index 14.5
About Zhipu AI (Z.ai)
Zhipu AI (Z.ai) publishes the GLM series as open weights. GLM-5.3 benchmarks within a few points of the proprietary frontier at roughly a third of the price, and GLM-5.3-Flash keeps most of that score at small-model pricing.