GLM vs Claude. Price, context and when to switch.
Zhipu's GLM 5.3 is a 743B mixture-of-experts for reasoning, coding and agents, served here with a 256K-token window. GLM 5.3 Flash is the cheaper multimodal option. Both against Claude Sonnet 5.
Side by side.
Claude Sonnet 5 at Anthropic's list price as of October 11, 2026. Open models at OpenRelay's current rates.
| Spec | Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Developer | Anthropic | Zhipu | Zhipu |
| Weights | Closed | Open | Open |
| Context window | 1M | 256K | 256K |
| Input | Text, images | Text | Text, images |
| Input / 1M tokens | $2.00 | $0.079 | $0.045 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.20 | $0.062 | $0.009 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $10.00 | $3.00 | $0.45 |
Monthly cost on common workloads.
100,000 requests a month at realtime rates. Token counts are typical sizes; open any row in the calculator to use your own.
Open the calculator| Workload | Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record matching2,500 in · 150 out | $650.00 | $64.7510x cheaper | $18.0036x cheaper |
| Classification400 in · 20 out | $100.00 | $9.1611x cheaper | $2.7037x cheaper |
| Data extraction1,500 in · 300 out | $600.00 | $101.855.9x cheaper | $20.2530x cheaper |
| Support chat3,000 in · 400 out · 50% cached | $730.00 | $141.155.2x cheaper | $26.1028x cheaper |
| RAG answers6,000 in · 500 out · 20% cached | $1,484 | $195.367.6x cheaper | $45.1833x cheaper |
| Agent step20,000 in · 1,500 out · 80% cached | $2,620 | $580.804.5x cheaper | $99.9026x cheaper |
Pick GLM 5.3 or GLM 5.3 Flash for
- Claude Code on an open model: point ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL at OpenRelay and set the model to GLM 5.2, the GLM our Anthropic-compatible endpoint serves. Cline and Cursor take the OpenAI-compatible endpoint.
- A 1M-token window at open-model rates on GLM 5.2.
- Image input at a fraction of the price on GLM 5.3 Flash.
Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for
- Tasks where your own evals show Sonnet 5 ahead by enough to pay for the gap.
- You already hold committed spend or a negotiated rate with Anthropic.
Questions
Is GLM 5.3 or GLM 5.3 Flash cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5?
Per token, yes. Claude Sonnet 5 lists at $2.00 input and $10.00 output per 1M tokens (as of October 11, 2026). A million record-matching calls a month at 2,500 input and 150 output tokens cost $6,500 on it. GLM 5.3 lists at $0.079 input and $3.00 output per 1M tokens, and runs the same job for $647.50; GLM 5.3 Flash lists at $0.045 input and $0.45 output per 1M tokens, and runs the same job for $180.00.
Can I use GLM in Claude Code?
Yes, on GLM 5.2. OpenRelay serves it on an Anthropic-compatible Messages endpoint, so Claude Code needs three environment variables:
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://inference.openrelay.inc export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=or_... # your OpenRelay key export ANTHROPIC_MODEL=openrelay/glm-5.2 claude
Cline and Cursor take the OpenAI-compatible endpoint at https://inference.openrelay.inc/v1 instead.
GLM 5.3 or GLM 5.3 Flash?
GLM 5.3 for the larger model. GLM 5.3 Flash for image input and the lower rate. For a 1M-token window, GLM 5.2.
How should I compare quality?
Take a few hundred real requests where you already know the right answer, run them on both models, and score the outputs the same way. Then divide cost by the share each model gets right. That number, cost per correct answer, is the one to decide on.
Price your own workload.
Your token counts and volume, every model side by side.