Model comparison

GLM-5.3 vs Qwen3-30B-A3B

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 10× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 26 shared benchmarks.

GLM-5.3 Z.ai (Zhipu)

54.6

Rank #25 Confirmed

Qwen3-30B-A3B Alibaba (Qwen)

38.5

Rank #174 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 26 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.3 scores higher in 9 categories and Qwen3-30B-A3B in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5.3 leads 62.1 to 36.0.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is WeirdML: 75.4% for GLM-5.3 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-5.3.
  • GLM-5.3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 41K.

Side by side

GLM-5.3 and Qwen3-30B-A3B specifications
GLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index54.638.5
Released2026-08-142025-04-28
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window1M41K
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-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 59.0 (#12), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 37.0 (#188)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
SciCode59%33.3%
WeirdML75.4%29.8%
LMArena Coding14991416
DeepSWE69%—
FrontierCode40.1%—
LMArena WebDev1623—
FrontierSWE30.2%—
ALE-Bench1,317—

Agentic & Tool Use GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 36.3 (#34), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 29.5 (#75)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
APEX-Agents56.6%—
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard—41.4%
Vending-Bench 28,164—

Reasoning GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 45.2 (#42), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 21.6 (#193)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
CritPt19.1%0.3%
Chess Puzzles21%8%
LMArena Hard Prompts14911398
DTBench87.7%69.3%
LMCA55.5%22.4%
Epoch Capabilities Index155.56139.63
Kagi LLM Benchmark—54.9%
NYT Connections (extended)74.2%—
Mystery Game Puzzles33%—
Bench to the Future 30.15—

Math GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 62.1 (#27), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 36.0 (#133)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202591.1%70.3%
LMArena Math14931394
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)68.8%—
FrontierMath Tier 429.3%—
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—47.8%
ProofBench49%—

Knowledge GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#34), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 41.7 (#96)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
GPQA Diamond90.9%70.1%
LMArena Expert15121395
SimpleQA Verified41%—
Confabulations—12.3%

Multilingual GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 55.9 (#27), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 49.8 (#126)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Non-English14571372
LMArena Chinese15231434
LMArena French14991419
LMArena German15051379
LMArena Japanese14381338
LMArena Korean14781333
LMArena Russian14601369
LMArena Spanish14441403

Instruction Following GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 77.8 (#15), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 72.2 (#137)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Instruction Following14811364

Long Context GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 45.5 (#32), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 31.0 (#278)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Longer Query14851379
Fiction.LiveBench—40.6%

Writing & Preference GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 75.9 (#6), Qwen3-30B-A3B: 55.9 (#138)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3-30B-A3B
LMArena Text14731384
LMArena Creative Writing14591318
LMArena Multi-Turn14731378
Short-Story Creative Writing—75.3%
EQ-Bench Creative Writing2075—

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-5.3 better than Qwen3-30B-A3B?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.6 to 38.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3-30B-A3B costs 10× 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 Qwen3-30B-A3B?

Qwen3-30B-A3B is cheaper. It lists at $0.12 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

Is GLM-5.3 or Qwen3-30B-A3B better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.0 versus 37.0 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM-5.3 does, with 1M tokens against 41K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-5.3 and Qwen3-30B-A3B share?

26 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.3 has 41 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3-30B-A3B has 32.

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