Model comparison

GLM-5 vs MiniMax-M3

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 43.8 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M3 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 27 shared benchmarks.

GLM-5 Z.ai (Zhipu)

46.1

Rank #66 Confirmed

MiniMax-M3 MiniMax

43.8

Rank #85 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 27 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5 scores higher in 6 categories and MiniMax-M3 in 3 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in agentic & tool use, where GLM-5 leads 31.1 to 22.6.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is NYT Connections (extended): 74.8% for GLM-5 and 65.1% for MiniMax-M3.
  • MiniMax-M3 is cheaper at $0.30 / $1.20 per million input/output tokens, against $1 / $3.20 for GLM-5.
  • MiniMax-M3 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 205K.

Side by side

GLM-5 and MiniMax-M3 specifications
GLM-5MiniMax-M3
ProviderZ.ai (Zhipu)MiniMax
Noometry Index46.143.8
Released2026-02-112026-06-01
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window205K1M
Max output131K512K
Input $ / M tokens$1$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$3.20$1.20
Results tracked4541

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Category by category

Coding GLM-5 leads

GLM-5: 49.0 (#52), MiniMax-M3: 41.8 (#118)

Coding benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena WebDev14341482
LMArena Coding14611469
ALE-Bench765.62640.02
SWE-bench Verified72.1%—
FrontierCode—14.7%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)72.8%—
SWE-bench Multilingual69.7%—
SciCode—47.1%
WeirdML48.2%—

Agentic & Tool Use GLM-5 leads

GLM-5: 31.1 (#71), MiniMax-M3: 22.6 (#130)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
Vending-Bench 24,4322,158
Terminal-Bench52.4%—
APEX-Agents—37.7%
OSWorld 2.0—4.6%
τ²-bench Airline82.5%—
τ²-bench Banking9.8%—
τ²-bench Retail73.7%—
τ²-bench Telecom86.8%—
GBAEval—0.9%

Reasoning MiniMax-M3 leads

GLM-5: 27.6 (#116), MiniMax-M3: 30.1 (#87)

Reasoning benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
SimpleBench53.2%45.8%
NYT Connections (extended)74.8%65.1%
Chess Puzzles10%14%
LMArena Hard Prompts14521447
Epoch Capabilities Index145.83146.95
ForecastBench6161.4
ARC-AGI-24.9%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark75%—
ARC-AGI-144.7%—
CritPt—3.7%
Mystery Game Puzzles—8%
DTBench—78.9%
LMCA—33.7%
Surface Evolver Bench—55%

Math GLM-5 leads

GLM-5: 46.4 (#71), MiniMax-M3: 40.0 (#95)

Knowledge MiniMax-M3 leads

GLM-5: 52.3 (#64), MiniMax-M3: 58.4 (#35)

Knowledge benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
GPQA Diamond87.8%90.9%
LMArena Expert14541461
Vectara Hallucination Rate10.1%—

Multimodal Not comparable

GLM-5: —, MiniMax-M3: 40.2 (#51)

Multimodal benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Vision—1253
LMArena Document—1435

Multilingual Too close to call

GLM-5: 53.7 (#58), MiniMax-M3: 53.0 (#75)

Multilingual benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Non-English14301420
LMArena Chinese15111463
LMArena French14551447
LMArena German14451426
LMArena Japanese14161381
LMArena Korean14231372
LMArena Russian14361428
LMArena Spanish14541432

Instruction Following Too close to call

GLM-5: 75.2 (#67), MiniMax-M3: 75.5 (#62)

Instruction Following benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Instruction Following14281433

Long Context Too close to call

GLM-5: 44.7 (#60), MiniMax-M3: 44.2 (#72)

Long Context benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Longer Query14461445
CL-bench18.7%—

Writing & Preference GLM-5 leads

GLM-5: 66.0 (#38), MiniMax-M3: 62.1 (#83)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
BenchmarkGLM-5MiniMax-M3
LMArena Text14461433
LMArena Creative Writing14391404
LMArena Multi-Turn14561442
EQ-Bench Creative Writing1601—
EQ-Bench 4—1150

Frequently asked questions

Is GLM-5 better than MiniMax-M3?

GLM-5 is the stronger model overall, scoring 46.1 to 43.8 on the Noometry Index. MiniMax-M3 costs 3.0× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, GLM-5 or MiniMax-M3?

MiniMax-M3 is cheaper. It lists at $0.30 per million input tokens and $1.20 per million output tokens; GLM-5 lists at $1 and $3.20.

Is GLM-5 or MiniMax-M3 better for coding?

GLM-5 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 49.0 versus 41.8 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

MiniMax-M3 does, with 1M tokens against 205K.

How many benchmarks do GLM-5 and MiniMax-M3 share?

27 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5 has 45 scored results on Noometry and MiniMax-M3 has 41.

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