Compare / Moonshot AI vs Z.ai

AI labs compared · October 2026

Moonshot 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. 18 models in all; a lab is only as good as the model you would actually pick from it.

7 models on sale with our resultsMoonshot AI Best: Kimi K3 · newest: Kimi K3

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

Moonshot AI wins 51 too close to callZ.ai wins 2

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.

Moonshot AI or Z.ai? The short answer

Moonshot AI is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 5 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 2, and 1 is a tie.

Pick Moonshot AI for product listings, marketing planning, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.
Pick Z.ai for agents and tool use and professional work.
On our overall leaderboard, Kimi K3 is #10 (50 of 100) and GLM-5.3 is #16 (38).
Prices start at $1.00 per million tokens for Moonshot AI (Kimi K2 (0711)) and $0.15 for Z.ai (GLM-4.7-Flash).

Head to head

50Kimi K3

Best Spring Prompt overall score

38GLM-5.3

43.6Kimi K3

Best Intelligence Index

44.8GLM-5.3

$6.00Kimi K3

Flagship price, per million tokens

$2.15GLM-5.3

$1.00Kimi K2 (0711)

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

13 of 20Kimi K3 19 of 20GLM-5V-Turbo

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

8 of 19Kimi K3 not measured

Marketing planningPlanning a year of ad spend without overspending

8 of 19Kimi K3 16 of 19GLM-5.3

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

19 of 164Kimi K2 (0711) 11 of 164GLM-5.3

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

24 of 51Kimi K3 15 of 51GLM-5.3

Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge

15 of 198Kimi K3 25 of 198GLM-5.3

WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality

11 of 188Kimi K3 23 of 188GLM-5.3

Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers

28 of 152Kimi K3 30 of 152GLM-5.3-Flash

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

19 of 22Kimi K3 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.

Moonshot AIZ.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.

#10Kimi K350
#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	Moonshot AI	Z.ai
Agents and tool use
Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard (BFCL) V4 · Overall accuracy · BFCL% correct, higher is better	59.1%Kimi K2 (0711) · 6 of 38	72.4%GLM-4.6 · 3 of 38
OpenHands Index · Average% resolved, higher is better	57.1%Kimi K2.6 · 14 of 33	58.2%GLM-5.1 · 12 of 33
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks, higher is better	12.6%Kimi K3 · 29 of 105	41.9%GLM-5.3 · 9 of 105
Artificial Analysis · Terminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks, higher is better	85.0%Kimi K3 · 11 of 115	84.3%GLM-5.3-Flash · 14 of 115
Artificial Analysis · τ-bench banking% of tasks, higher is better	46.0%Kimi K3 · 9 of 113	50.3%GLM-5.3 · 3 of 113
Vending-Bench 2 · Money after a yearUS dollars, higher is better	$6,205Kimi K2.6 · 15 of 56	$8,314GLM-5.2 · 7 of 56
Marketing planning
ROASBench · Overall scorescore out of 100, higher is better	44.1Kimi K3 · 8 of 19	24.8GLM-5.3 · 16 of 19
Product listings
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready% of products, higher is better	41.1%Kimi K3 · 9 of 20	1.8%GLM-5V-Turbo · 19 of 20
CatalogBench · Reliably publish-ready · sales brief% of products, higher is better	1.8%Kimi K3 · 16 of 20	0.0%GLM-5V-Turbo · 18 of 20
Professional work
APEX-Agents · Tasks passed% of tasks, higher is better	50.6%Kimi K3 · 21 of 37	56.6%GLM-5.3 · 13 of 37
GDP.pdf · Professional document tasks% of rubric, higher is better	19.0%Kimi K3 · 17 of 31	14.0%GLM-5.3-Flash · 24 of 31
Reasoning and knowledge
Artificial Analysis · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better	43.6Kimi K3 · 16 of 198	44.8GLM-5.3 · 14 of 198
Artificial Analysis · Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better	46.9%Kimi K3 · 16 of 197	42.3%GLM-5.3 · 30 of 197
Artificial Analysis · GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better	93.5%Kimi K3 · 10 of 187	91.7%GLM-5.3 · 24 of 187
Speed under pressure
BulletBench · Ladder Elo · Bullet 60sladder Elo, higher is better	33Kimi K3 · 17 of 20	33GLM-5.3 · 17 of 20
Sticking to the facts
Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard · Hallucination rate · Vectara% of summaries, lower is better	10.8%Kimi K2.6 · 52 of 79	9.3%GLM-4.7-Flash · 35 of 79
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · Text factualityArena rating, higher is better	1,472Kimi K3 · 16 of 113	1,467GLM-5.3 · 24 of 113
SimpleQA Verified (Epoch AI) · Correct answers% of questions, higher is better	50.6%Kimi K3 · 23 of 73	41.0%GLM-5.3 · 41 of 73
Writing
Arena (formerly LMArena) · Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better	1,488Kimi K3 · 11 of 166	1,478GLM-5.3 · 21 of 166
UGI Leaderboard · Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better	64.4Kimi K2.6 · 25 of 138	67.0GLM-5.2 · 18 of 138

Their models, one against one

Quick answers

Is Moonshot AI or Z.ai better?

Moonshot AI is ahead: its best models beat Z.ai's in 5 of the 8 kinds of work both are measured on; Z.ai leads in 2, and 1 is a tie.

What is Moonshot AI's best model?

Kimi K3: #10 on the Spring Prompt overall leaderboard and 43.6 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, Moonshot AI or Z.ai?

Z.ai: its best model there, GLM-5.3, ranks 11 of 164 models on sale, against 19 for Moonshot AI's Kimi K2 (0711).

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

Moonshot AI: its best model there, Kimi K3, ranks 15 of 198 models on sale, against 25 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

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

Moonshot AI: its best model there, Kimi K3, ranks 11 of 188 models on sale, against 23 for Z.ai's GLM-5.3.

Which is cheaper, Moonshot AI or Z.ai?

Z.ai's cheapest model with results, GLM-4.7-Flash, costs $0.15 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.00 for Kimi K2 (0711) from Moonshot AI.

Other labs compared

Which model is best for your product?

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

Talk to us See the leaderboard