Model comparison

GLM-5.1 vs Qwen3-30B-A3B

GLM-5.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.8 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 25 shared benchmarks.

GLM-5.1 Z.ai (Zhipu)

47.8

Rank #59 Confirmed

Qwen3-30B-A3B Alibaba (Qwen)

38.9

Rank #179 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 25 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.1 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3-30B-A3B in 1 category; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GLM-5.1 leads 39.1 to 22.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 57.1% for GLM-5.1 and 29.8% for Qwen3-30B-A3B.
  • Qwen3-30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.12 / $0.50 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.1.
  • GLM-5.1 accepts more context: 200K tokens versus 41K.

Side by side

GLM-5.1 and Qwen3-30B-A3B specifications
GLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index47.838.9
Released2026-04-072025-04-28
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window200K41K
Max output131K16K
Input $ / M tokens$1.40$0.12
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$0.50
Results tracked4132

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 48.7 (#55), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.5 (#194)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
SciCode43.8%33.3%
WeirdML57.1%29.8%
LMArena Coding14851416
SWE-bench Verified74.2%—
LMArena WebDev1508—
ALE-Bench887.1—

Agentic & Tool Use Qwen3-30B-A3B leads

GLM-5.1: 24.9 (#113), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 29.8 (#82)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
APEX-Agents40.9%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—41.4%
ExploitBench18.1%—
GBAEval0%—
Vending-Bench 25,634—

Reasoning GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 39.1 (#60), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 22.2 (#204)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
CritPt4.6%0.3%
Chess Puzzles19%8%
LMArena Hard Prompts14721398
Epoch Capabilities Index149.84139.63
SimpleBench55.1%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark—54.9%
NYT Connections (extended)77.7%—
Thematic Generalization69.8%—
DTBench—69.3%
LMCA—22.4%

Math GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 49.7 (#60), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.4 (#157)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions67.1%47.8%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202593.3%70.3%
LMArena Math14731394
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)36.8%—
ProofBench22.2%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)33.4%—
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)12.5%—

Knowledge GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 54.9 (#50), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 41.8 (#105)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
GPQA Diamond89.9%70.1%
LMArena Expert14761396
SimpleQA Verified34%—
Confabulations—12.3%

Multilingual GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 55.0 (#36), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 49.5 (#132)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Non-English14471372
LMArena Chinese15151433
LMArena French14741418
LMArena German14651380
LMArena Japanese14341337
LMArena Korean14181331
LMArena Russian14541370
LMArena Spanish14691404

Instruction Following GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 76.3 (#42), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 72.0 (#142)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Instruction Following14511363

Long Context GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 44.9 (#53), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 31.0 (#283)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Longer Query14661379
Fiction.LiveBench—40.6%

Writing & Preference GLM-5.1 leads

GLM-5.1: 66.9 (#31), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 55.6 (#143)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.1Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Text14611384
LMArena Creative Writing14531317
LMArena Multi-Turn14721378
Short-Story Creative Writing—75.3%
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1592—

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-5.1 better than Qwen3-30B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 is the stronger model overall, scoring 47.8 to 38.9 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.1's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3-30B-A3B?

Qwen3-30B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.12 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; GLM-5.1 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

Is GLM-5.1 or Qwen3-30B-A3B better for coding?

GLM-5.1 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 48.7 versus 37.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM-5.1 does, with 200K tokens against 41K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-5.1 and Qwen3-30B-A3B share?

25 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.1 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-30B-A3B has 32.

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