Compare / Mercury 3 vs GLM-5.3
Mercury 3 vs GLM-5.3
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 14 results on 2 sources that measured both models.
Of the 14 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 20 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-20-96eb40c3ec63).
Mercury 3 or GLM-5.3? The short answer
They score about the same, so pick Mercury 3: it costs 8.0 times less per game of bullet chess on BulletBench.
- Spring Prompt overall: Mercury 3 39, GLM-5.3 36 (out of 100; how the score works).
- Mercury 3 is cheaper to run: $0.002 against $0.016 per game of bullet chess on BulletBench (8.0 times less).
- Mercury 3 is newer: released 19 Oct 2026, against 14 Aug 2026 for GLM-5.3.
- On our own benchmarks, on the results both models have: Mercury 3 does better for marketing planning and speed under pressure.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Mercury 3 | GLM-5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.20 in · $0.70 out | $1.40 in · $4.40 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $0.33 | $2.15 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.65 (Novita, FP8) |
| Cost per game of bullet chess (BulletBench) | $0.002 | $0.016 |
| Cached input, per million | $0.020 cached input | $0.26 cached input |
| Intelligence Index | – | 44.8 |
| Spring Prompt overall | 39 | 36 |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 87 |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Released | 19 Oct 2026 (newer) | 14 Aug 2026 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | the US | China |
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.
From our research
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.
| Measure | Mercury 3 | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results | ||
| Cost per game · Bullet 60sUS dollars, lower is better 7 · 22 of 32 measured | $0.0020no reasoning | $0.0156 |
| Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 15 · 29 of 32 measured | 491no reasoning | 33 |
| Games lost on time · Bullet 60s% of games, lower is better 1 · 28 of 32 measured | 0.0%no reasoning | 83.3%low reasoning |
| ROASBench measured by Spring Prompt · 3 results | ||
| Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 18 · 21 of 24 measured | 26.1 | 24.8 |
| Audience scorescore out of 100, higher is better 21 · 17 of 24 measured | 43.2 | 51.0 |
| Business scorescore out of 100, higher is better 18 · 21 of 24 measured | 17.6 | 12.9 |
Show all 14 results (8 more)
| Measure | Mercury 3 | GLM-5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| BulletBench measured by Spring Prompt · 2 results | ||
| Invalid moves · Bullet 60s% of moves, lower is better 1 · 1 of 32 measured | 0.0%low reasoning | 0.0% |
| Median move time · Bullet 60smilliseconds, lower is better 3 · 23 of 32 measured | 0.4 sno reasoning | 1.6 slow reasoning |
| ROASBench measured by Spring Prompt · 6 results | ||
| Consistency scorescore out of 100, higher is better 19 · 20 of 24 measured | 15.1 | 14.8 |
| Contribution profitsimulated US dollars, higher is better 18 · 22 of 24 measured | $104,868 | $9,718 |
| Cost of a runUS dollars, lower is better 6 · 9 of 24 measured | $0.0533 | $0.13 |
| Months over budgetmonths of 12, lower is better 1 · 1 of 24 measured | 0 | 0 |
| Planning scorescore out of 100, higher is better 23 · 24 of 24 measured | 53.8 | 51.7 |
| Return on ad spendprofit per $1 spent, higher is better 18 · 22 of 24 measured | $0.10 | $0.01 |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Mercury 3 better than GLM-5.3?
They score about the same, so pick Mercury 3: it costs 8.0 times less per game of bullet chess on BulletBench.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 3 or GLM-5.3?
Mercury 3 is cheaper to run: $0.002 against $0.016 per game of bullet chess on BulletBench (8.0 times less).
Which is better for marketing planning, Mercury 3 or GLM-5.3?
Mercury 3 ranks 18 of 24 models on sale for planning a year of ad spend without overspending, against 21 for GLM-5.3.
Which is better for speed under pressure, Mercury 3 or GLM-5.3?
Mercury 3 ranks 10 of 27 models on sale for good decisions against a real clock (fast chess), against 25 for GLM-5.3.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 3 or GLM-5.3?
GLM-5.3: 1,048,576 tokens, against 1,000,000 for Mercury 3.
Run Mercury 3 and GLM-5.3 on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.