Compare / Alibaba vs Z.ai

AI labs compared · October 2026

Alibaba vs Z.ai: which AI lab is ahead?

Each lab's best model on sale goes head to head on every kind of work we measure, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. 38 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

27 models on sale with our resultsAlibaba Best: Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · newest: Qwen3.8-27B

11 models on sale with our resultsZ.ai Best: GLM-5.3 · newest: GLM-5.3-Flash

Alibaba wins 6Z.ai wins 1

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 7 both are measured on.

Results as of 8 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-08-4199ce0620fe). Models on sale means listed on OpenRouter today.

Alibaba or Z.ai? The short answer

Alibaba is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 6 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 1.

Pick Alibaba for product listings, marketing planning, agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
Pick Z.ai for professional work.
On our overall leaderboard, Qwen3.8-Max (0902) is #12 (48 of 100) and GLM-5.3 is #16 (38).
Prices start at $0.11 per million tokens for Alibaba (Qwen3.5-9B) and $0.15 for Z.ai (GLM-4.7-Flash).

Head to head

48Qwen3.8-Max (0902)

Best Spring Prompt overall score

38GLM-5.3

45.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902)

Best Intelligence Index

44.8GLM-5.3

$3.00Qwen3.8-Max (0902)

Flagship price, per million tokens

$2.15GLM-5.3

$0.11Qwen3.5-9B

Cheapest model, per million tokens

$0.15GLM-4.7-Flash

Models on sale with our results

Each line names the model behind the number. Prices are blended, three input tokens to one output, at the developer's list price where we have read it; see every model's price. Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis; overall score from our leaderboard.

Which lab is better for what

For each kind of work, each lab's best model there and its rank among every model on sale. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.

Product listingsTurning a sparse product feed and photos into listings that can go live

17 of 20Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 19 of 20GLM-5V-Turbo

Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is

11 of 19Qwen3.8-Max (0902) not measured

Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending

14 of 19Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 16 of 19GLM-5.3

Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls

7 of 164Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 11 of 164GLM-5.3

Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects

18 of 51Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 15 of 51GLM-5.3

Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge

17 of 198Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 25 of 198GLM-5.3

WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality

16 of 188Qwen3.8-Max (0902) 23 of 188GLM-5.3

Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers

6 of 152Qwen3-8B 30 of 152GLM-5.3-Flash

Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess)

not measured 19 of 22GLM-5.3

Every model, by intelligence and price

Each dot is a model on sale with an Intelligence Index from Artificial Analysis. Up is smarter; left is cheaper. Hover or tap a dot for its name.

AlibabaZ.ai

On our overall leaderboard

The 3 of their models we rank overall: one score out of 100 across everything we publish (how the score works). Only models with enough of our own results are ranked.

Benchmark by benchmark

The headline result of every benchmark both labs have models on: each lab's best model and its rank among the models on sale. Green marks the better rank.

Measure	Alibaba	Z.ai
Agents and tool use
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, retail% of tasks, higher is better	84.4%Qwen3.5-397B-A17B · 1 of 6	73.7%GLM-5 · 5 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, airline% of tasks, higher is better	81.5%Qwen3.5-397B-A17B · 5 of 6	82.5%GLM-5 · 3 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, telecom% of tasks, higher is better	97.8%Qwen3.5-397B-A17B · 1 of 6	86.8%GLM-5 · 5 of 6
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better	52.2%Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 · 13 of 38	72.4%GLM-4.6 · 3 of 38
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better	52.9%Qwen3.6-Plus · 16 of 33	58.2%GLM-5.1 · 12 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better	38.9%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 11 of 105	41.9%GLM-5.3 · 9 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better	88.8%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 5 of 115	84.3%GLM-5.3-Flash · 14 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better	48.0%Qwen3.8-27B · 5 of 113	50.3%GLM-5.3 · 3 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better	$5,115Qwen3.6-Plus · 24 of 56	$8,314GLM-5.2 · 7 of 56
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better	25.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 14 of 19	24.8GLM-5.3 · 16 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better	28.6%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 13 of 20	1.8%GLM-5V-Turbo · 19 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better	0.0%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 18 of 20	0.0%GLM-5V-Turbo · 18 of 20
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better	24.9%Qwen3.5-397B-A17B · 36 of 37	56.6%GLM-5.3 · 13 of 37
GDP.pdf · Professional document tasks% of rubric, higher is better	23.2%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 13 of 31	14.0%GLM-5.3-Flash · 24 of 31
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better	45.4Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 13 of 198	44.8GLM-5.3 · 14 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better	43.1%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 23 of 197	42.3%GLM-5.3 · 30 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better	92.8%Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 15 of 187	91.7%GLM-5.3 · 24 of 187
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better	4.8%Qwen3-8B · 5 of 79	9.3%GLM-4.7-Flash · 35 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better	1,472Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 18 of 113	1,467GLM-5.3 · 24 of 113
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · Correct answers% of questions, higher is better	55.8%Qwen3.7-Max · 18 of 73	41.0%GLM-5.3 · 41 of 73
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better	1,482Qwen3.8-Max (0902) · 17 of 166	1,478GLM-5.3 · 21 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better	58.2Qwen3.6-Plus · 38 of 138	67.0GLM-5.2 · 18 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Alibaba or Z.ai better?

Alibaba is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 6 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 1.

What is Alibaba's best model?

Qwen3.8-Max (0902): #12 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 45.4 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

What is Z.ai's best model?

GLM-5.3: #16 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 44.8 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.

Which is better for agents and tool use, Alibaba or Z.ai?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 7 of 164 models on sale, against 11 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Alibaba or Z.ai?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 17 of 198 models on sale, against 25 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

Which is better for writing, Alibaba or Z.ai?

Alibaba: its best model there, Qwen3.8-Max (0902), ranks 16 of 188 models on sale, against 23 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

Which is cheaper, Alibaba or Z.ai?

Alibaba's cheapest model with results, Qwen3.5-9B, costs $0.11 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $0.15 for GLM-4.7-Flash from Z.ai.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

Benchmarks aren't your data. We test the models from Alibaba, Z.ai and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to us See the leaderboard