Compare / Google vs Z.ai

AI labs compared · October 2026

Google 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. 27 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

16 models on sale with our resultsGoogle Best: Gemini 3.8 Flash · newest: Gemini 3.8 Flash
11 models on sale with our resultsZ.ai Best: GLM-5.3 · newest: GLM-5.3-Flash
Google wins 7Z.ai wins 1

Kinds of work led by each lab's best model there, of the 8 both are measured on.

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

Google or Z.ai? The short answer

Google is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 7 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 1.

  • Pick Google for product listings, marketing planning, professional work, reasoning and knowledge, writing, sticking to the facts and speed under pressure.
  • Pick Z.ai for agents and tool use.
  • On our overall leaderboard, Gemini 3.8 Flash is #8 (61 of 100) and GLM-5.3 is #16 (38).
  • Prices start at $0.062 per million tokens for Google (Gemma 3 4B) and $0.15 for Z.ai (GLM-4.7-Flash).

Head to head

61Gemini 3.8 Flash
Best Spring Prompt overall score
38GLM-5.3
40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash
Best Intelligence Index
44.8GLM-5.3
$3.00Gemini 3.8 Flash
Flagship price, per million tokens
$2.15GLM-5.3
$0.062Gemma 3 4B
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.15GLM-4.7-Flash
16
Models on sale with our results
11

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 8 of 20Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 19 of 20GLM-5V-Turbo
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 12 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash not measured
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 5 of 8Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview not measured
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 7 of 19Gemini 3.8 Flash 16 of 19GLM-5.3
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 29 of 164Gemini 3.7 Flash 11 of 164GLM-5.3
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 11 of 51Gemini 3.8 Flash 15 of 51GLM-5.3
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 12 of 198Gemini 3.8 Flash 25 of 198GLM-5.3
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 2 of 188Gemini 3.8 Flash 23 of 188GLM-5.3
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 1 of 152Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite 30 of 152GLM-5.3-Flash
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 2 of 22Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite 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.

GoogleZ.ai

01020304050 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Gemini 3.8 FlashGemini 3.7 FlashGemini 3.6 FlashGLM-5.3GLM-5.3-FlashGLM-5.2

On our overall leaderboard

The 5 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.

  1. #8Gemini 3.8 Flash61
  2. #10Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview50
  3. #16GLM-5.338
  4. #19Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite27
  5. #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.

MeasureGoogleZ.ai
Agents and tool use
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, retail% of tasks, higher is better 76.8%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 4 of 673.7%GLM-5 · 5 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, airline% of tasks, higher is better 82.5%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 3 of 682.5%GLM-5 · 3 of 6
τ²-bench · Task success (pass^1) · tau2 v1.0.1, telecom% of tasks, higher is better 91.2%Gemini 3 Flash Preview · 3 of 686.8%GLM-5 · 5 of 6
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 56.2%Gemini 2.5 Flash · 8 of 3872.4%GLM-4.6 · 3 of 38
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better 62.6%Gemini 3.5 Flash · 7 of 3358.2%GLM-5.1 · 12 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 19.7%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 23 of 10541.9%GLM-5.3 · 9 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 87.6%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 8 of 11584.3%GLM-5.3-Flash · 14 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 45.8%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 10 of 11350.3%GLM-5.3 · 3 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better $5,396Gemini 3.5 Flash · 22 of 56$8,314GLM-5.2 · 7 of 56
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 51.4Gemini 3.8 Flash · 7 of 1924.8GLM-5.3 · 16 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 44.6%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 8 of 201.8%GLM-5V-Turbo · 19 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 16.1%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 8 of 200.0%GLM-5V-Turbo · 18 of 20
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better 67.8%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 4 of 3756.6%GLM-5.3 · 13 of 37
GDP.pdf · Professional document tasks% of rubric, higher is better 23.8%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 11 of 3114.0%GLM-5.3-Flash · 24 of 31
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 40.9Gemini 3.8 Flash · 21 of 19844.8GLM-5.3 · 14 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 47.9%Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 19742.3%GLM-5.3 · 30 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 95.3%Gemini 3.8 Flash · 2 of 18791.7%GLM-5.3 · 24 of 187
Speed under pressure
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 1,068Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1 of 2033GLM-5.3 · 17 of 20
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 3.3%Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite · 2 of 799.3%GLM-4.7-Flash · 35 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,477Gemini 3.7 Flash · 12 of 1131,467GLM-5.3 · 24 of 113
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · Correct answers% of questions, higher is better 73.5%Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview · 3 of 7341.0%GLM-5.3 · 41 of 73
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,495Gemini 3.8 Flash · 6 of 1661,478GLM-5.3 · 21 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 78.6Gemini 3.8 Flash · 1 of 13867.0GLM-5.2 · 18 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Google or Z.ai better?

Google is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 7 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 1.

What is Google's best model?

Gemini 3.8 Flash: #8 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 40.9 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, Google or Z.ai?

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 11 of 164 models on sale, against 29 for Google's Gemini 3.7 Flash.

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

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.8 Flash, ranks 12 of 198 models on sale, against 25 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

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

Google: its best model there, Gemini 3.8 Flash, ranks 2 of 188 models on sale, against 23 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

Which is cheaper, Google or Z.ai?

Google's cheapest model with results, Gemma 3 4B, costs $0.062 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 Google, Z.ai and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard