Model comparison

GLM-5.3 vs Qwen3 235B-A22B

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 43.2 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 235B-A22B costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 30 shared benchmarks.

GLM-5.3 Z.ai (Zhipu)

54.6

Rank #25 Confirmed

Qwen3 235B-A22B Alibaba (Qwen)

43.2

Rank #83 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.3 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3 235B-A22B in 1 category; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where GLM-5.3 leads 45.2 to 15.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 75.4% for GLM-5.3 and 41% for Qwen3 235B-A22B.
  • Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper at $0.70 / $2.80 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
  • GLM-5.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

GLM-5.3 and Qwen3 235B-A22B specifications
GLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index54.643.2
Released2026-08-142025-04
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window1M131K
Max output131K16K
Input $ / M tokens$1.40$0.70
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$2.80
Results tracked4149

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 59.0 (#12), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 43.8 (#72)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
SciCode59%42.4%
WeirdML75.4%41%
LMArena Coding14991445
DeepSWE69%—
FrontierCode40.1%—
Aider Polyglot—59.6%
LMArena WebDev1623—
FrontierSWE30.2%—
ALE-Bench1,317—

Agentic & Tool Use GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 36.3 (#34), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 33.7 (#48)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
Vending-Bench 28,164-11.34
APEX-Agents56.6%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—52.1%

Reasoning GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 45.2 (#42), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 15.8 (#302)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
CritPt19.1%0%
Chess Puzzles21%12%
LMArena Hard Prompts14911433
Mystery Game Puzzles33%9%
DTBench87.7%80.3%
LMCA55.5%29.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index155.56143.87
ARC-AGI-2—1.3%
SimpleBench—31%
Kagi LLM Benchmark—69.4%
NYT Connections (extended)74.2%—
ARC-AGI-1—11%
Bench to the Future 30.15—
ForecastBench—59.7

Math GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 62.1 (#27), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 48.5 (#51)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202591.1%86.7%
LMArena Math14931431
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)68.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 429.3%—
ProofBench49%—
Omni-MATH—71.8%
MATH Level 5—68.9%
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—8.5%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—0%

Knowledge GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#34), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 49.5 (#67)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
GPQA Diamond90.9%80.1%
SimpleQA Verified41%40.4%
LMArena Expert15121460
MMLU-Pro—84.4%
Confabulations—15.6%
Vectara Hallucination Rate—9.3%
GPQA (HELM)—72.7%

Multilingual GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 55.9 (#27), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 52.5 (#84)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
LMArena Non-English14571410
LMArena Chinese15231481
LMArena French14991445
LMArena German15051432
LMArena Japanese14381400
LMArena Korean14781391
LMArena Russian14601411
LMArena Spanish14441429

Instruction Following GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 77.8 (#15), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 72.8 (#132)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
LMArena Instruction Following14811408
IFEval—83.5%

Long Context Too close to call

GLM-5.3: 45.5 (#32), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 46.1 (#25)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
LMArena Longer Query14851426
Fiction.LiveBench—75%

Writing & Preference GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 75.9 (#6), Qwen3 235B-A22B: 59.8 (#103)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3 235B-A22B
LMArena Text14731419
LMArena Creative Writing14591384
EQ-Bench Creative Writing20751366
LMArena Multi-Turn14731432
Short-Story Creative Writing—83%
WildBench—86.6%

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-5.3 better than Qwen3 235B-A22B?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 43.2 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3 235B-A22B costs 1.8× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-5.3 or Qwen3 235B-A22B?

Qwen3 235B-A22B is cheaper. It lists at $0.70 per million input tokens and $2.80 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

Is GLM-5.3 or Qwen3 235B-A22B better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.0 versus 43.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM-5.3 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-5.3 and Qwen3 235B-A22B share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 235B-A22B has 49.

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