Compare / Mistral AI vs Z.ai

AI labs compared · October 2026

Mistral AI 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. 23 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

12 models on sale with our resultsMistral AI Best: Mistral Large 4 · newest: Mistral Large 4
11 models on sale with our resultsZ.ai Best: GLM-5.3 · newest: GLM-5.3-Flash
Mistral AI wins 4Z.ai wins 3

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.

Mistral AI or Z.ai? The short answer

Mistral AI is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 4 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 3.

  • Pick Mistral AI for product listings, marketing planning, sticking to the facts and speed under pressure.
  • Pick Z.ai for agents and tool use, reasoning and knowledge and writing.
  • On our overall leaderboard, GLM-5.3 is #16 (38 of 100) and Mistral Large 4 is #17 (37).
  • Prices start at $0.058 per million tokens for Mistral AI (Mistral Small 3) and $0.15 for Z.ai (GLM-4.7-Flash).

Head to head

37Mistral Large 4
Best Spring Prompt overall score
38GLM-5.3
38.4Mistral Large 4
Best Intelligence Index
44.8GLM-5.3
$2.06Mistral Large 4
Flagship price, per million tokens
$2.15GLM-5.3
$0.058Mistral Small 3
Cheapest model, per million tokens
$0.15GLM-4.7-Flash
12
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 14 of 20Mistral Medium 3.5 19 of 20GLM-5V-Turbo
Decks from an analysisTurning a finished analysis into a deck you could present as it is 16 of 19Mistral Medium 3.5 not measured
User surveysPlanning a user survey and reading its results without being misled 4 of 8Mistral Large 4 not measured
Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending 10 of 19Mistral Large 4 16 of 19GLM-5.3
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 21 of 164Mistral Large 4 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 44 of 198Mistral Large 4 25 of 198GLM-5.3
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 86 of 188Mistral Medium 3.5 23 of 188GLM-5.3
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 9 of 152Mistral Small 3 30 of 152GLM-5.3-Flash
Speed under pressureGood decisions against a real clock (fast chess) 8 of 22Mistral Medium 3.5 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.

Mistral AIZ.ai

01020304050 $0.01$0.1$1$10 Price per million tokens, blended (log scale) Intelligence Index Mistral Large 4GLM-5.3GLM-5.3-FlashGLM-5.2GLM-5GLM-5.1

On our overall leaderboard

The 4 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. #16GLM-5.338
  2. #17Mistral Large 437
  3. #20Mistral Medium 3.518
  4. #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.

MeasureMistral AIZ.ai
Agents and tool use
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better 37.7%Mistral Medium 3 · 21 of 3872.4%GLM-4.6 · 3 of 38
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better 26.8%Mistral Large 4 · 17 of 10541.9%GLM-5.3 · 9 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better 50.6%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 58 of 11584.3%GLM-5.3-Flash · 14 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better 15.1%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 57 of 11350.3%GLM-5.3 · 3 of 113
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better 37.0Mistral Large 4 · 10 of 1924.8GLM-5.3 · 16 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better 17.9%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 16 of 201.8%GLM-5V-Turbo · 19 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better 10.7%Mistral Medium 3.5 · 9 of 200.0%GLM-5V-Turbo · 18 of 20
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 38.4Mistral Large 4 · 29 of 19844.8GLM-5.3 · 14 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 35.0%Mistral Large 4 · 54 of 19742.3%GLM-5.3 · 30 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 76.9%Mistral Small 4 · 112 of 18791.7%GLM-5.3 · 24 of 187
Speed under pressure
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better 572Mistral Medium 3.5 · 6 of 2033GLM-5.3 · 17 of 20
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better 5.1%Mistral Small 3 · 6 of 799.3%GLM-4.7-Flash · 35 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better 1,434Mistral Large 3 · 71 of 1131,467GLM-5.3 · 24 of 113
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 1,427Mistral Medium 3.5 · 73 of 1661,478GLM-5.3 · 21 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 45.5Mistral Medium 3.5 · 68 of 13867.0GLM-5.2 · 18 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Mistral AI or Z.ai better?

Mistral AI is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 4 of the 7 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 3.

What is Mistral AI's best model?

Mistral Large 4: #17 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 38.4 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, Mistral AI or Z.ai?

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 11 of 164 models on sale, against 21 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

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

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 25 of 198 models on sale, against 44 for Mistral AI's Mistral Large 4.

Which is better for writing, Mistral AI or Z.ai?

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 23 of 188 models on sale, against 86 for Mistral AI's Mistral Medium 3.5.

Which is cheaper, Mistral AI or Z.ai?

Mistral AI's cheapest model with results, Mistral Small 3, costs $0.058 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 Mistral AI, Z.ai and the rest on your own tasks, with the cost of every answer.

Talk to usSee the leaderboard