Compare / Amazon vs Z.ai

AI labs compared · October 2026

Amazon 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. 15 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

4 models on sale with our resultsAmazon Best: Nova 2 Lite · newest: Nova 2 Lite

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

Amazon wins 1Z.ai wins 3

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 4 both are measured on.

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

Amazon or Z.ai? The short answer

Z.ai is ahead: its best models beat Amazon's in 3 of the 4 kinds of work both are measured on; Amazon leads in 1.

Pick Amazon for sticking to the facts.
Pick Z.ai for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Z.ai's GLM-5.3 is #16 on our overall leaderboard; no Amazon model has enough of our results to be ranked there yet.
Prices start at $0.061 per million tokens for Amazon (Nova Micro 1.0) and $0.15 for Z.ai (GLM-4.7-Flash).

Head to head

13.4Nova 2 Lite

Best Intelligence Index

44.8GLM-5.3

$0.85Nova 2 Lite

Flagship price, per million tokens

$2.15GLM-5.3

$0.061Nova Micro 1.0

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

not measured 19 of 20GLM-5V-Turbo

Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending

not measured 16 of 19GLM-5.3

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

133 of 164Nova 2 Lite 11 of 164GLM-5.3

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

not measured 15 of 51GLM-5.3

Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge

116 of 198Nova 2 Lite 25 of 198GLM-5.3

WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality

169 of 188Nova 2 Lite 23 of 188GLM-5.3

Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers

9 of 152Nova Pro 1.0 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.

AmazonZ.ai

On our overall leaderboard

The 2 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.

#16GLM-5.338
#21GLM-5V-Turbo11

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	Amazon	Z.ai
Agents and tool use
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better	27.1%Nova 2 Lite · 32 of 38	72.4%GLM-4.6 · 3 of 38
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better	16.1%Nova 2 Lite · 87 of 115	84.3%GLM-5.3-Flash · 14 of 115
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better	13.4Nova 2 Lite · 119 of 198	44.8GLM-5.3 · 14 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better	11.6%Nova 2 Lite · 124 of 197	42.3%GLM-5.3 · 30 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better	81.1%Nova 2 Lite · 92 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	5.1%Nova 2 Lite · 6 of 79	9.3%GLM-4.7-Flash · 35 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better	1,380Nova 2 Lite · 103 of 113	1,467GLM-5.3 · 24 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better	1,335Nova 2 Lite · 138 of 166	1,478GLM-5.3 · 21 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better	23.5Nova 2 Lite · 131 of 138	67.0GLM-5.2 · 18 of 138

Quick answers

Is Amazon or Z.ai better?

Z.ai is ahead: its best models beat Amazon's in 3 of the 4 kinds of work both are measured on; Amazon leads in 1.

What is Amazon's best model?

Nova 2 Lite: 13.4 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, Amazon or Z.ai?

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 11 of 164 models on sale, against 133 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

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

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 25 of 198 models on sale, against 116 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

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

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 23 of 188 models on sale, against 169 for Amazon's Nova 2 Lite.

Which is cheaper, Amazon or Z.ai?

Amazon's cheapest model with results, Nova Micro 1.0, costs $0.061 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 Amazon, Z.ai and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to us See the leaderboard