Model comparison

GLM-5.3 vs Qwen3.5-Flash

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 29 shared benchmarks.

GLM-5.3 Z.ai (Zhipu)

54.8

Rank #26 Confirmed

Qwen3.5-Flash Alibaba (Qwen)

42.5

Rank #112 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 29 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.3 scores higher in 8 categories and Qwen3.5-Flash in 0 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in coding, where GLM-5.3 leads 59.5 to 34.2.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 68.8% for GLM-5.3 and 18.2% for Qwen3.5-Flash.
  • Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper at $0.10 / $0.40 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
  • GLM-5.3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

GLM-5.3 and Qwen3.5-Flash specifications
GLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)Alibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index54.842.5
Released2026-08-142026-02-23
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window1M1M
Max output131K66K
Input $ / M tokens$1.40$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$4.40$0.40
Results tracked4232

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 59.5 (#14), Qwen3.5-Flash: 34.2 (#242)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena WebDev16221244
LMArena Coding14961412
ALE-Bench1,317221.8
DeepSWE69%—
FrontierCode40.1%—
CursorBench42.6%—
FrontierSWE30.2%—
SciCode59%—
WeirdML75.4%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

GLM-5.3: 36.4 (#38), Qwen3.5-Flash: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
Vending-Bench 28,164462.69
APEX-Agents56.6%—

Reasoning GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 46.1 (#46), Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.7 (#72)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
Chess Puzzles21%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts14891403
Mystery Game Puzzles33%20%
DTBench87.7%82.9%
LMCA55.5%29.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index155.61143.98
NYT Connections (extended)74.2%—
CritPt19.1%—
Bench to the Future 30.15—

Math GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 62.3 (#33), Qwen3.5-Flash: 37.4 (#158)

Math benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)68.8%18.2%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202591.1%84.4%
LMArena Math14891407
FrontierMath Tier 429.3%—
ProofBench49%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—6.2%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—0%

Knowledge GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#37), Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#93)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
GPQA Diamond90.9%82.3%
SimpleQA Verified41%20.3%
LMArena Expert15161407
Vectara Hallucination Rate—10.5%

Multilingual GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 55.7 (#28), Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.5 (#121)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Non-English14571385
LMArena Chinese15281446
LMArena French14991412
LMArena German14991390
LMArena Japanese14531368
LMArena Korean14721344
LMArena Russian14631379
LMArena Spanish14601400

Instruction Following GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 77.5 (#23), Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.6 (#139)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Instruction Following14771374

Long Context GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 45.4 (#41), Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#124)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Longer Query14821392

Writing & Preference GLM-5.3 leads

GLM-5.3: 75.7 (#6), Qwen3.5-Flash: 57.9 (#122)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5.3Qwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Text14711397
LMArena Creative Writing14571343
LMArena Multi-Turn14721393
EQ-Bench Creative Writing2075—

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-5.3 better than Qwen3.5-Flash?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 42.5 on the Noometry Index. Qwen3.5-Flash costs 12× 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 Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash is cheaper. It lists at $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

Is GLM-5.3 or Qwen3.5-Flash better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.5 versus 34.2 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Both accept 1M tokens.

How many benchmarks do GLM-5.3 and Qwen3.5-Flash share?

29 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.3 has 42 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-Flash has 32.

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