Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, GLM-4.5-Air is 71% cheaper per million tokens than Gemini 3.6 Flash. Gemini 3.6 Flash is $0.75 / $3.75 per million input/output tokens versus GLM-4.5-Air at $0.20 / $1.10. Sources: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing and https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing

    Sources: Gemini API pricing (https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing); Z AI pricing (https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing)

    Gemini 3.6 Flash

    Google

    $4.50blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.75

    Output

    $3.75

    1M ctx|Proprietary
    71%
    cheaper
    Better value

    GLM-4.5-Air

    Z AI

    $1.30blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.20

    Output

    $1.10

    131.1K ctx|Open Source
    Save $3.20 per million tokens by choosing GLM-4.5-Air over Gemini 3.6 Flash.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Gemini 3.6 Flash
    GLM-4.5-Air
    Provider
    Provider
    Google
    Z AI
    License
    Proprietary
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2026-07-21
    2025-07-28
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price+275%
    $0.75
    $0.20
    Output Price+241%
    $3.75
    $1.10
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $4.50
    $1.30
    Model Details
    Context Window
    1M
    131.1K
    Max Output Tokens
    65.5K
    N/A
    Knowledge Cutoff
    2026-03-31
    N/A
    Throughput
    189.1623152597947 tok/s
    N/A
    Benchmarks
    10.6%
    75%
    86.4%
    48.6%
    46.7%
    88.1%
    70.7%
    52.7%
    37.3%
    1527.83
    21.3%
    68.7%
    60.4%
    83%
    89.4%
    82.2%
    89.4%
    98.1%
    88.4%
    64.8%
    76.4%
    63.3%
    10.6%
    48.5%
    65.4%
    14%
    53.1%
    79.7%
    63.9%
    89.3%
    81.4%
    54%
    48.7%
    74.9%
    Benchmark Wins
    Gemini 3.6 Flash 5|0 GLM-4.5-Air

    Verdict

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air: the bottom line

    GLM-4.5-Air offers significantly lower pricing, while Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on benchmark performance. Your choice depends on whether cost efficiency or raw capability matters more for your use case.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air?

    As of August 20, 2026, GLM-4.5-Air is 71% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens ($1.30 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75 / $3.75 per million tokens ($4.50 blended). Sources: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/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 Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air cost per million tokens?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash Gemini API pricing is $0.75 input and $3.75 output per million tokens via Google. GLM-4.5-Air Z AI API pricing is $0.20 input and $1.10 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, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on SWE-bench Verified: Gemini 3.6 Flash at 79.6% vs GLM-4.5-Air at 57.6%. SWE-bench measures real GitHub fixes; LiveCodeBench measures contest programming.

    What is the context window for Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash supports a 1M token context window, while GLM-4.5-Air supports 131K tokens. Gemini 3.6 Flash 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, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash leads on 5 of 5 shared benchmarks versus GLM-4.5-Air'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 Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air better for production use?

    Both Gemini 3.6 Flash and GLM-4.5-Air are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, GLM-4.5-Air 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 Gemini 3.6 Flash and GLM-4.5-Air in my app?

    Yes. Call Gemini 3.6 Flash through Google and GLM-4.5-Air 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 Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Gemini API pricing and Z AI API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/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 Gemini 3.6 Flash and GLM-4.5-Air?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash supports up to 66K output tokens per request, while GLM-4.5-Air 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, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air?

    Gemini 3.6 Flash has a measured throughput of approximately 189.1623152597947 tokens/second. Throughput data for GLM-4.5-Air 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 Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Gemini 3.6 Flash or GLM-4.5-Air from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $0.75/M input and $3.75/M output. GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20/M input and $1.10/M output.

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

    The index

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