Model comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite vs GLM-5

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 41.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 1.8× 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 3.5 Flash Lite Google

41.5

Rank #133 Confirmed

GLM-5 Z.ai (Zhipu)

46.1

Rank #66 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 28 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite scores higher in 1 category and GLM-5 in 8 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5 leads 46.4 to 25.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 60.4% for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and 74.8% for GLM-5.
  • Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper at $0.30 / $2.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $3.20 for GLM-5.
  • Gemini 3.5 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 3.5 Flash Lite and GLM-5 specifications
Gemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
ProviderGoogleZ.ai (Zhipu)
Noometry Index41.546.1
Released2026-07-212026-02-11
WeightsProprietaryOpen
Context window1.05M205K
Max output66K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.30$1
Output $ / M tokens$2.50$3.20
Results tracked3945

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 42.4 (#104), GLM-5: 49.0 (#52)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena WebDev14401434
WeirdML39%48.2%
LMArena Coding14531461
ALE-Bench765.27765.62
SWE-bench Verified—72.1%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)—72.8%
SWE-bench Multilingual—69.7%
SciCode41.3%—

Agentic & Tool Use GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.7 (#107), GLM-5: 31.1 (#71)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
Terminal-Bench—52.4%
APEX-Agents29.3%—
τ²-bench Airline—82.5%
τ²-bench Banking—9.8%
τ²-bench Retail—73.7%
τ²-bench Telecom—86.8%
GDP.pdf10%—
Vending-Bench 2—4,432

Reasoning Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 27.8 (#114), GLM-5: 27.6 (#116)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
ARC-AGI-210.3%4.9%
NYT Connections (extended)60.4%74.8%
ARC-AGI-153.5%44.7%
Chess Puzzles22%10%
LMArena Hard Prompts14411452
Epoch Capabilities Index145.13145.83
SimpleBench—53.2%
Kagi LLM Benchmark—75%
CritPt0%—
Mystery Game Puzzles19%—
DTBench83.5%—
LMCA37.6%—
ForecastBench—61

Math GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 25.9 (#264), GLM-5: 46.4 (#71)

Knowledge GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 50.1 (#72), GLM-5: 52.3 (#64)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
GPQA Diamond83.3%87.8%
LMArena Expert14351454
Vectara Hallucination Rate—10.1%

Multimodal Not comparable

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 41.1 (#40), GLM-5: —

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Vision1268—

Multilingual Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 53.5 (#63), GLM-5: 53.7 (#58)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Non-English14271430
LMArena Chinese14691511
LMArena French14511455
LMArena German14541445
LMArena Japanese14271416
LMArena Korean14071423
LMArena Russian14431436
LMArena Spanish14421454

Instruction Following Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 74.8 (#85), GLM-5: 75.2 (#67)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Instruction Following14201428

Long Context Too close to call

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 43.9 (#84), GLM-5: 44.7 (#60)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Longer Query14351446
CL-bench—18.7%

Writing & Preference GLM-5 leads

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite: 64.2 (#57), GLM-5: 66.0 (#38)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGemini 3.5 Flash LiteGLM-5
LMArena Text14351446
LMArena Creative Writing14201439
EQ-Bench Creative Writing15591601
LMArena Multi-Turn14451456

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite better than GLM-5?

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 41.5 on the Noometry Index. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or GLM-5?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens; GLM-5 lists at $1 and $3.20.

Is Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite or GLM-5 better for coding?

GLM-5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.0 versus 42.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite does, with 1.05M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite and GLM-5 share?

28 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite has 39 scored results on Noometry and GLM-5 has 45.

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