Which is cheaper, GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
As of August 20, 2026, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct is 69% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct costs $0.89 per million input tokens and $0.89 per million output tokens ($1.78 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). GLM-5.3 costs $1.40 / $4.40 per million tokens ($5.80 blended). Sources: https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing and https://llama.meta.com/. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.
How much does GLM-5.3 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct cost per million tokens?
GLM-5.3 Z AI API pricing is $1.40 input and $4.40 output per million tokens via Z AI. Llama 3.1 405B Instruct Meta API pricing is $0.89 input and $0.89 output per million tokens via Meta. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.
Which is better for coding, GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has a published HumanEval score of 89%. GLM-5.3 does not have that eval on this page yet.
What is the context window for GLM-5.3 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
GLM-5.3 supports a 1M token context window, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct supports 128K 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, GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
Shared benchmark scores for GLM-5.3 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct are still limited. Check the comparison table for the evals each model has published. 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 GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct better for production use?
Both GLM-5.3 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Llama 3.1 405B Instruct 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 GLM-5.3 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct in my app?
Yes. Call GLM-5.3 through Z AI and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct through Meta 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 GLM-5.3 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct pricing data?
List rates are the latest published Z AI API pricing and Meta API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing and https://llama.meta.com/. 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 GLM-5.3 and Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
GLM-5.3 supports up to an unspecified number of output tokens per request, while Llama 3.1 405B Instruct supports up to 128K 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, GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct?
Llama 3.1 405B Instruct has a measured throughput of approximately 42 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 GLM-5.3 vs Llama 3.1 405B Instruct comparison?
Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open GLM-5.3 or Llama 3.1 405B Instruct from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.
