Model comparison

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite vs GLM-5

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 28 shared benchmarks.

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Google

40.8

Rank #144 Confirmed

GLM-5 Z.ai (Zhipu)

46.1

Rank #66 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite scores higher in 0 categories and GLM-5 in 9 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where GLM-5 leads 49.0 to 37.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 8.2% for Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and 74.8% for GLM-5.
  • Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.25 / $1.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $3.20 for GLM-5.
  • Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 205K.
  • GLM-5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and GLM-5 specifications
Gemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
ProviderGoogleZ.ai (Zhipu)
Noometry Index40.846.1
Released2026-03-032026-02-11
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M205K
Max output66K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.25$1
Output $ / M tokens$1.50$3.20
Results tracked3845

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 37.8 (#188), GLM-5: 49.0 (#52)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena WebDev12561434
WeirdML52.2%48.2%
LMArena Coding14001461
ALE-Bench797.73765.62
SWE-bench Verified—72.1%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—72.8%
SWE-bench Multilingual—69.7%
SciCode41.9%—

Agentic & Tool Use Too close to call

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 30.2 (#79), GLM-5: 31.1 (#71)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
Terminal-Bench—52.4%
τ²-bench Airline—82.5%
τ²-bench Banking—9.8%
τ²-bench Retail—73.7%
τ²-bench Telecom—86.8%
DeepResearch Bench37.3%—
Vending-Bench 2—4,432

Reasoning GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 22.9 (#186), GLM-5: 27.6 (#116)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
Kagi LLM Benchmark67.2%75%
NYT Connections (extended)8.2%74.8%
Chess Puzzles25%10%
LMArena Hard Prompts14071452
Epoch Capabilities Index144.47145.83
ForecastBench54.461
ARC-AGI-2—4.9%
SimpleBench—53.2%
ARC-AGI-1—44.7%
CritPt1.1%—
EnigmaEval3%—
Thematic Generalization63.3%—
DTBench76.8%—
LMCA35%—

Math GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 40.7 (#90), GLM-5: 46.4 (#71)

Knowledge GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 41.9 (#104), GLM-5: 52.3 (#64)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
GPQA Diamond81.8%87.8%
Vectara Hallucination Rate8.2%10.1%
LMArena Expert13981454
Humanity's Last Exam8.6%—

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 39.4 (#60), GLM-5: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Vision1240—

Multilingual GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 52.3 (#86), GLM-5: 53.7 (#58)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Non-English14111430
LMArena Chinese14611511
LMArena French14241455
LMArena German14291445
LMArena Japanese14131416
LMArena Korean13921423
LMArena Russian14201436
LMArena Spanish14211454

Instruction Following GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 72.7 (#131), GLM-5: 75.2 (#67)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Instruction Following13771428

Long Context GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 42.5 (#122), GLM-5: 44.7 (#60)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Longer Query13941446
CL-bench—18.7%

Writing & Preference GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite: 60.9 (#94), GLM-5: 66.0 (#38)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.1 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Text14161446
LMArena Creative Writing14011439
LMArena Multi-Turn14171456
EQ-Bench Creative Writing—1601

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite better than GLM-5?

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 40.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite costs 2.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or GLM-5?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.25 per million input tokens and $1.50 per million output tokens; GLM-5 lists at $1 and $3.20.

Is Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite or GLM-5 better for coding?

GLM-5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.0 versus 37.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite and GLM-5 share?

28 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite has 38 scored results on Noometry and GLM-5 has 45.

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