Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, GLM-5.3 is 94% cheaper per million tokens than Claude Opus 4. Claude Opus 4 is $15.00 / $75.00 per million input/output tokens versus GLM-5.3 at $1.40 / $4.40. Sources: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing and https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing

    Sources: Anthropic Claude API pricing (https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing); Z AI pricing (https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing)

    Claude Opus 4

    Anthropic

    $90.00blended / 1M

    Input

    $15.00

    Output

    $75.00

    200K ctx|Proprietary
    94%
    cheaper
    Better value

    GLM-5.3

    Z AI

    $5.80blended / 1M

    Input

    $1.40

    Output

    $4.40

    1M ctx|Open Source
    Save $84.20 per million tokens by choosing GLM-5.3 over Claude Opus 4.

    Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Claude Opus 4
    GLM-5.3
    Provider
    Provider
    Anthropic
    Z AI
    License
    Proprietary
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2025-05-22
    2026-08-14
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price+971%
    $15.00
    $1.40
    Output Price+1605%
    $75.00
    $4.40
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $90.00
    $5.80
    Model Details
    Context Window
    200K
    1M
    Max Output Tokens
    32K
    N/A
    Knowledge Cutoff
    2025-03-31
    N/A
    Throughput
    100 tok/s
    N/A
    Benchmarks
    10.7%
    62.5%
    79.6%
    76.3%
    66.9%
    8.6%
    39.2%
    88.2%
    88.8%
    75.5%
    90.4%
    76.5%
    85.0%
    0.3%
    84.5%
    54.4%
    78.1%
    59%
    92.9%
    93.8%
    86.2%
    58%
    58.8%
    42.5%
    71.9%
    Benchmark Wins
    Claude Opus 4 0|2 GLM-5.3

    Verdict

    Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3: the bottom line

    GLM-5.3 offers both lower pricing and stronger benchmark performance across the board, making it the clear value leader in this comparison.

    Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3?

    As of August 20, 2026, GLM-5.3 is 94% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. GLM-5.3 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens ($5.80 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Claude Opus 4 costs $15.00 / $75.00 per million tokens ($90.00 blended). Sources: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing and https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 cost per million tokens?

    Claude Opus 4 Claude API pricing from Anthropic is $15.00 input and $75.00 output per million tokens via Anthropic. GLM-5.3 Z AI API pricing is $1.40 input and $4.40 output per million tokens via Z AI. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3?

    Claude Opus 4 has a published SWE-bench Verified score of 72.5%. GLM-5.3 does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3?

    Claude Opus 4 supports a 200K token context window, while GLM-5.3 supports 1M tokens. GLM-5.3 offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3?

    GLM-5.3 leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks versus Claude Opus 4's 0 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3 better for production use?

    Both Claude Opus 4 and GLM-5.3 are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, GLM-5.3 has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Claude Opus 4 and GLM-5.3 in my app?

    Yes. Call Claude Opus 4 through Anthropic and GLM-5.3 through Z AI with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Claude API pricing from Anthropic and Z AI API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing and https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Claude Opus 4 and GLM-5.3?

    Claude Opus 4 supports up to 32K output tokens per request, while GLM-5.3 supports up to an unspecified number of output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3?

    Claude Opus 4 has a measured throughput of approximately 100 tokens/second. Throughput data for GLM-5.3 is not yet available. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Claude Opus 4 or GLM-5.3 from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-5.3 pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Claude Opus 4 costs $15.00/M input and $75.00/M output. GLM-5.3 costs $1.40/M input and $4.40/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

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