Model comparison

GLM-4.6 vs Qwen3.8 Max

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.6 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 20 shared benchmarks.

GLM-4.6 Z.ai (Zhipu)

41.4

Rank #135 Confirmed

Qwen3.8 Max Alibaba (Qwen)

56.8

Rank #22 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 20 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-4.6 scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.8 Max in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where Qwen3.8 Max leads 73.2 to 39.1.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is CritPt: 1.1% for GLM-4.6 and 20% for Qwen3.8 Max.
  • GLM-4.6 is cheaper at $0.60 / $2.20 per million input/output tokens, against $2 / $6 for Qwen3.8 Max.
  • Qwen3.8 Max accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.
  • GLM-4.6 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GLM-4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max specifications
GLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index41.456.8
Released2025-09-302026-08-02
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window205K1M
Max output131K131K
Input $ / M tokens$0.60$2
Output $ / M tokens$2.20$6
Results tracked2939

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 40.1 (#148), Qwen3.8 Max: 53.5 (#29)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena WebDev13401674
SciCode38.4%53.2%
LMArena Coding14491502
DeepSWE—57.5%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)55.4%—
FrontierSWE—17.8%
ALE-Bench340.82—

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 32.3 (#66), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.4 (#14)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
Terminal-Bench24.5%—
APEX-Agents—63.3%
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard72.4%—
τ²-bench Banking—55.1%
GDP.pdf—23.2%

Reasoning Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 23.7 (#172), Qwen3.8 Max: 54.4 (#26)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
CritPt1.1%20%
LMArena Hard Prompts14401496
Kagi LLM Benchmark47.4%—
NYT Connections (extended)—88.3%
Chess Puzzles—40%
Mystery Game Puzzles—38%
DTBench—92%
LMCA—46.2%
Epoch Capabilities Index—156.41

Math Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 39.1 (#111), Qwen3.8 Max: 73.2 (#20)

Knowledge Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 40.2 (#124), Qwen3.8 Max: 61.7 (#27)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Expert14311507
GPQA Diamond—92.7%
SimpleQA Verified—47.3%
Vectara Hallucination Rate9.5%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GLM-4.6: —, Qwen3.8 Max: 37.2 (#75)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Vision—1314
Furniture Assembly—20%

Multilingual Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 53.5 (#66), Qwen3.8 Max: 56.7 (#18)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Non-English14261472
LMArena Chinese14991538
LMArena French14591503
LMArena German14471483
LMArena Japanese13931467
LMArena Korean14001461
LMArena Russian14191481
LMArena Spanish14361492

Instruction Following Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 74.3 (#98), Qwen3.8 Max: 77.6 (#17)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Instruction Following14101479

Long Context Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 43.4 (#94), Qwen3.8 Max: 45.6 (#31)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Longer Query14221489

Writing & Preference Qwen3.8 Max leads

GLM-4.6: 61.1 (#90), Qwen3.8 Max: 67.1 (#30)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-4.6Qwen3.8 Max
LMArena Text14401483
LMArena Creative Writing14111479
LMArena Multi-Turn14271489
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1411—

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-4.6 better than Qwen3.8 Max?

Qwen3.8 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 56.8 to 41.4 on the Noometry Index. GLM-4.6 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.8 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-4.6 or Qwen3.8 Max?

GLM-4.6 is cheaper. It lists at $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max lists at $2 and $6.

Is GLM-4.6 or Qwen3.8 Max better for coding?

Qwen3.8 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 53.5 versus 40.1 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.8 Max does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-4.6 and Qwen3.8 Max share?

20 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-4.6 has 29 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.8 Max has 39.

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