Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs GLM-4.5

Qwen3.6-Plus vs GLM-4.5

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
Z.aiGLM-4.5 Released 3 Aug 2025 · $0.60 in · $2.20 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 15GLM-4.5 wins 1

Of the 16 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.

Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs Z.ai, every model from both labs.

Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-4.5? The short answer

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 12.8) and costs less.

  • Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $1.00 per million tokens, 27% less.
  • Qwen3.6-Plus scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 27.0 against 12.8.
  • Qwen3.6-Plus is newer: released 31 Mar 2026, against 3 Aug 2025 for GLM-4.5.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3.6-Plus does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Head to head

27.0
Intelligence Index
12.8
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$1.00
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
131,072

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGLM-4.5
Price per million tokens$0.33 in · $1.95 out$0.60 in · $2.20 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.73$1.00
Cheapest host, blended––
Intelligence Index27.012.8
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second––
Context window1,000,000 tokens131,072 tokens
Released31 Mar 2026 (newer)3 Aug 2025
WeightsClosedOpen
Developer based inChinaChina

Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.

Which is better for what

Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 63 of 164 not measured
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 67 of 198 120 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 54 of 188 76 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 80 of 152 not measured

Every shared result

Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.

MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGLM-4.5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 125 of 387 measured 1,443 1,411
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 121 of 380 measured 1,446 1,412
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 130 of 385 measured 1,407 1,372
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 145 of 243 measured 27.0 12.8
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 118 of 231 measured 88.2% 78.2%
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 134 of 242 measured 27.8% 13.0%
UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results
Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 49 · 53 of 230 measured 58.2thinking reasoning 57.3thinking reasoning
Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 25 · 57 of 230 measured 8.0%thinking reasoning 13.0%no reasoning
Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 96 · 73 of 230 measured 0.35no reasoning 0.36thinking reasoning
Show all 16 results (7 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGLM-4.5
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 107 of 338 measured 1,476 1,444
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 117 of 387 measured 1,435 1,405
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 132 of 386 measured 1,423 1,382
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 29 · 119 of 195 measured 75.2% 44.1%
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 150 of 233 measured 78.3% 52.7%
Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 23 · 87 of 190 measured 43.9% 22.0%
τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 7 · 112 of 193 measured 97.7% 43.0%

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than GLM-4.5?

Pick Qwen3.6-Plus: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 27.0 against 12.8) and costs less.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $1.00 per million tokens, 27% less.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 67 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 120 for GLM-4.5.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.6-Plus ranks 54 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 76 for GLM-4.5.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-4.5?

Qwen3.6-Plus: 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for GLM-4.5.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and GLM-4.5 on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.