# GLM-5.3 vs GPT-4.1 mini

> GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 3.1× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.3's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/glm-5-3-vs-gpt-4-1-mini
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 30

## Summary

- They share 30 benchmarks with published results for both. GLM-5.3 scores higher in 9 categories and GPT-4.1 mini in 0 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5.3 leads 62.3 to 24.1.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3): 68.8% for GLM-5.3 and 6.7% for GPT-4.1 mini.
- GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper at $0.40 / $1.60 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.3.
- GPT-4.1 mini accepts more context: 1.05M tokens versus 1M.
- GLM-5.3 has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Z.ai (Zhipu) | OpenAI |
| Noometry Index | 54.8 | 33.6 |
| Rank | 26 | 240 |
| Context | 1M | 1.05M |
| Input $/M | $1.40 | $0.40 |
| Output $/M | $4.40 | $1.60 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- GLM-5.3: 59.5 (#14)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 30.6 (#293)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 59% | 40.4% |
| WeirdML | 75.4% | 37.6% |
| LMArena Coding | 1496 | 1367 |
| DeepSWE | 69% | — |
| FrontierCode | 40.1% | — |
| SWE-bench Verified (bash only) | — | 23.9% |
| Aider Polyglot | — | 32.4% |
| CursorBench | 42.6% | — |
| LMArena WebDev | 1622 | — |
| FrontierSWE | 30.2% | — |
| BigCodeBench Instruct | — | 48.9% |
| CadEval | — | 16% |
| ALE-Bench | 1,317 | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- GLM-5.3: 36.4 (#38)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 33.3 (#55)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| APEX-Agents | 56.6% | — |
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | — | 50.5% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | 8,164 | — |

## Reasoning

- GLM-5.3: 46.1 (#46)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 10.8 (#340)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 19.1% | 0% |
| Chess Puzzles | 21% | 7% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1489 | 1349 |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | 33% | 7% |
| DTBench | 87.7% | 68.8% |
| LMCA | 55.5% | 21.1% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 155.61 | 135.01 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 0% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 48.6% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | 74.2% | — |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 3.5% |
| Bench to the Future 3 | 0.15 | — |

## Math

- GLM-5.3: 62.3 (#33)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 24.1 (#270)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | 68.8% | 6.7% |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 91.1% | 44.7% |
| LMArena Math | 1489 | 1343 |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | 29.3% | — |
| ProofBench | 49% | — |
| Omni-MATH | — | 49.1% |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 87.3% |
| FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set) | — | 4.5% |

## Knowledge

- GLM-5.3: 58.3 (#37)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 34.7 (#194)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 90.9% | 65.8% |
| SimpleQA Verified | 41% | 12.7% |
| LMArena Expert | 1516 | 1338 |
| MMLU-Pro | — | 78.3% |
| GPQA (HELM) | — | 61.4% |

## Multimodal

- GLM-5.3: —
- GPT-4.1 mini: 35.8 (#82)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Vision | — | 1181 |

## Multilingual

- GLM-5.3: 55.7 (#28)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 45.7 (#166)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1457 | 1318 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1528 | 1329 |
| LMArena French | 1499 | 1358 |
| LMArena German | 1499 | 1351 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1453 | 1290 |
| LMArena Korean | 1472 | 1298 |
| LMArena Russian | 1463 | 1324 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1460 | 1319 |

## Instruction Following

- GLM-5.3: 77.5 (#23)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 73.7 (#118)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1477 | 1333 |
| IFEval | — | 90.4% |

## Long Context

- GLM-5.3: 45.4 (#41)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 31.8 (#275)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1482 | 1344 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 44.4% |

## Writing & Preference

- GLM-5.3: 75.7 (#6)
- GPT-4.1 mini: 48.6 (#199)

| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | GPT-4.1 mini |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1471 | 1340 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1457 | 1300 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 2075 | 1147 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1472 | 1354 |
| WildBench | — | 83.8% |

## FAQ

### Is GLM-5.3 better than GPT-4.1 mini?

GLM-5.3 is the stronger model overall, scoring 54.8 to 33.6 on the Noometry Index. GPT-4.1 mini costs 3.1× 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 GPT-4.1 mini?

GPT-4.1 mini is cheaper. It lists at $0.40 per million input tokens and $1.60 per million output tokens; GLM-5.3 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

### Is GLM-5.3 or GPT-4.1 mini better for coding?

GLM-5.3 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 59.5 versus 30.6 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GPT-4.1 mini does, with 1.05M tokens against 1M.

### How many benchmarks do GLM-5.3 and GPT-4.1 mini share?

30 benchmarks have published results for both models. GLM-5.3 has 42 scored results on Noometry and GPT-4.1 mini has 47.