Compare / Qwen3.6-Plus vs GLM-5.3

Qwen3.6-Plus vs GLM-5.3

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 4 sources that measured both models.

AlibabaQwen3.6-Plus Released 31 Mar 2026 · $0.33 in · $1.95 out
Z.aiGLM-5.3 Released 14 Aug 2026 · $1.40 in · $4.40 out
Qwen3.6-Plus wins 1GLM-5.3 wins 15

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-5.3? The short answer

Pick GLM-5.3 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.8 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 2.9 times less per token.

  • Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $2.15 per million tokens, 2.9 times less.
  • GLM-5.3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 44.8 against 27.0.
  • GLM-5.3 is newer: released 14 Aug 2026, against 31 Mar 2026 for Qwen3.6-Plus.
  • On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: GLM-5.3 does better for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.

Head to head

27.0
Intelligence Index
44.8
$0.73
Price per million tokens, blendedlower is better
$2.15
1,000,000
Context window, tokens
1,048,576

Every fact side by side

Qwen3.6-PlusGLM-5.3
Price per million tokens$0.33 in · $1.95 out$1.40 in · $4.40 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$0.73$2.15
Cheapest host, blended–$0.65 (Novita, FP8)
Cached input, per million–$0.26 cached input
Intelligence Index27.044.8
Spring Prompt overall–38
Output speed, tokens a second–76
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Released31 Mar 202614 Aug 2026 (newer)
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.

Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending not measured 16 of 19
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 63 of 164 11 of 164
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects not measured 15 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 67 of 198 25 of 198
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 54 of 188 23 of 188
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 80 of 152 53 of 152
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) not measured 20 of 23

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-5.3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results
Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 24 of 387 measured 1,443 1,478max reasoning
Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 84 · 29 of 163 measured 1,438 1,467max reasoning
Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 75 · 26 of 380 measured 1,446 1,475max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 62 · 15 of 243 measured 27.0 44.8max reasoning
GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 58 · 26 of 231 measured 88.2% 91.7%max reasoning
Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 84 · 32 of 242 measured 27.8% 42.3%max reasoning
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) reported by SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · 1 result
Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 38 · 42 of 76 measured 44.1% 41.0%max reasoning
Vending-Bench 2 reported by Vending-Bench 2 · 1 result
Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better 25 · 8 of 58 measured $5,115 $8,164
Show all 16 results (8 more)
MeasureQwen3.6-PlusGLM-5.3
Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 4 results
Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 82 · 28 of 385 measured 1,407 1,454max reasoning
Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 68 · 16 of 338 measured 1,476 1,518max reasoning
Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 74 · 21 of 387 measured 1,435 1,476max reasoning
Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 76 · 23 of 386 measured 1,423 1,466max reasoning
Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results
Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 47 · 17 of 130 measured 61.4% 83.9%max reasoning
τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 48 · 4 of 121 measured 20.8% 50.3%max reasoning
Artificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score, higher is better 50 · 14 of 131 measured 54.5 74.8max reasoning
Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 54 · 43 of 233 measured 78.3% 79.7%max reasoning

Quick answers

Is Qwen3.6-Plus better than GLM-5.3?

Pick GLM-5.3 if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 44.8 against 27.0). Pick Qwen3.6-Plus if cost matters more: it costs 2.9 times less per token.

Which is cheaper, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

Qwen3.6-Plus is cheaper: $0.73 against $2.15 per million tokens, 2.9 times less.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 ranks 11 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 63 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 ranks 25 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 67 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for writing, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 ranks 23 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 54 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which is better for sticking to the facts, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3 ranks 53 of 152 models on sale for summarising without inventing things, and factual answers, against 80 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3.6-Plus or GLM-5.3?

GLM-5.3: 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Qwen3.6-Plus.

Run Qwen3.6-Plus and GLM-5.3 on your own prompt

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