Model comparison

GLM-4.5 vs Qwen3 Max

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 42.0 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.5 costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

GLM-4.5 Z.ai (Zhipu)

42.0

Rank #122 Confirmed

Qwen3 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

43.7

Rank #87 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-4.5 scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3 Max in 6 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in knowledge, where Qwen3 Max leads 48.1 to 35.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 57.9% for GLM-4.5 and 72.5% for Qwen3 Max.
  • GLM-4.5 is cheaper at $0.60 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
  • Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
  • GLM-4.5 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GLM-4.5 and Qwen3 Max specifications
GLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index42.043.7
Released2025-07-272025-09-23
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K262K
Max output98K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.60$1.20
Output $ / M tokens$2.20$6
Results tracked2733

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3 Max leads

GLM-4.5: 41.4 (#125), Qwen3 Max: 43.0 (#93)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Coding14341456
ALE-Bench344.82370.45
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)54.2%—
WeirdML40.6%—
AlgoTune1.52—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GLM-4.5: —, Qwen3 Max: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
Vending-Bench 2—71.56

Reasoning GLM-4.5 leads

GLM-4.5: 28.6 (#100), Qwen3 Max: 22.6 (#190)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
Kagi LLM Benchmark57.9%72.5%
LMArena Hard Prompts14291448
NYT Connections (extended)—30.1%
Chess Puzzles—4%
Mystery Game Puzzles—5%
DTBench—82.1%
LMCA—28.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index—142.38

Math Too close to call

GLM-4.5: 39.0 (#116), Qwen3 Max: 38.7 (#131)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Math14271446
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—18.9%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025—73.3%
MATH Level 5—97.1%

Knowledge Qwen3 Max leads

GLM-4.5: 35.9 (#179), Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#78)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Expert14331455
GPQA Diamond—72.6%
Humanity's Last Exam8.3%—
SimpleQA Verified—48.7%
Confabulations11.3%—

Multilingual Too close to call

GLM-4.5: 52.8 (#77), Qwen3 Max: 53.7 (#62)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Non-English14171429
LMArena Chinese14651478
LMArena French14181449
LMArena German14071463
LMArena Japanese14151397
LMArena Korean13801399
LMArena Russian14141428
LMArena Spanish14541462

Instruction Following Too close to call

GLM-4.5: 74.1 (#104), Qwen3 Max: 74.8 (#87)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Instruction Following14041419

Long Context Qwen3 Max leads

GLM-4.5: 38.2 (#201), Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#134)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
Fiction.LiveBench58.3%66.7%
LMArena Longer Query14121438
CL-bench—14.5%

Writing & Preference Qwen3 Max leads

GLM-4.5: 57.5 (#127), Qwen3 Max: 62.4 (#76)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.5Qwen3 Max
LMArena Text14301439
LMArena Creative Writing13951402
LMArena Multi-Turn14151446
Short-Story Creative Writing73.4%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1343—

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-4.5 better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.7 to 42.0 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.5 costs 2.4× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-4.5 or Qwen3 Max?

GLM-4.5 is cheaper. It lists at $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

Is GLM-4.5 or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 43.0 versus 41.4 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-4.5 and Qwen3 Max share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-4.5 has 27 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.

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