Compare / Inkling vs GLM 5.3 Flash

Inkling vs GLM 5.3 Flash

Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 23 results on 3 sources that measured both models.

Inkling
Thinkingmachines · profile
GLM 5.3 Flash
Z.ai · profile
Results compared
23
Shared sources
3

Inkling or GLM 5.3 Flash? The short answer

  • GLM 5.3 Flash is cheaper: $0.24 against $1.72 per million tokens, 7.3 times less.
  • GLM 5.3 Flash scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 41.8 against 25.0.
  • Inkling writes faster: 166 tokens a second against 49.
  • On our business benchmarks, GLM 5.3 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, professional work, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

At a glance

InklingGLM 5.3 Flash
Price per million tokens$0.95 in · $4.05 out$0.15 in · $0.50 out
Blended (3 in : 1 out)$1.72$0.24
Cheapest host, blended$1.72 (DeepInfra, FP8)$0.12 (DeepInfra, FP4)
Intelligence Index25.041.8
Spring Prompt overall––
Output speed, tokens a second16649
Context window524,288 tokens1,048,576 tokens
WeightsOpenOpen
Developer based inthe USChina

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 models available today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. The better rank is in green.

Use caseInklingGLM 5.3 Flash
Agents and tool useMulti-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls 56 of 161 12 of 161
Professional workReal tasks from banking, consulting and law, business documents and freelance projects 45 of 51 30 of 51
Reasoning and knowledgeHard questions across science, maths and general knowledge 64 of 195 29 of 195
WritingWhat people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality 59 of 187 28 of 187
Sticking to the factsSummarising without inventing things, and factual answers 75 of 153 24 of 153

Every shared result

BenchmarkMetricInklingGLM 5.3 Flash
APEX-AgentsreportedTasks passed% of tasks 33.8%52.8%
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedConfirmed task successIPS effect estimate -0.220.07
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedPraise over complaintIPS effect estimate -0.22-0.00
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedSteerabilityIPS effect estimate -0.12-0.01
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedTool groundingIPS effect estimate -0.000.00
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4521,467
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedBusiness, management and financeArena rating 1,4441,463
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedCreative writingArena rating 1,3841,433
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedExpert promptsArena rating 1,4741,510
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedInstruction followingArena rating 1,4271,474
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedOverallArena rating 1,4421,474
Arena (formerly LMArena)reportedWriting, literature and languageArena rating 1,4031,450
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Coding Indexindex score 52.171.5
Artificial AnalysisreportedArtificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score 25.041.8
Artificial AnalysisreportedGPQA Diamond% of questions 87.2%91.2%
Artificial AnalysisreportedHumanity's Last Exam% of questions 31.9%39.9%
Artificial AnalysisreportedLong-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions 77.3%80.0%
Artificial AnalysisreportedOutput speedtokens per second 16649.5
Artificial AnalysisreportedSciCode% of problems 47.0%51.6%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 2.1% of tasks 55.1%84.3%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTerminal-Bench 4.0% of tasks 1.0%32.8%
Artificial AnalysisreportedTime to first answer tokenseconds 14.343.3
Artificial AnalysisreportedΤ-bench banking% of tasks 29.1%47.2%

Bold green marks the better value on that metric. Where a source reports ranges that overlap, the difference may not be meaningful; see the benchmark page for ranges.

Quick answers

Is Inkling better than GLM 5.3 Flash?

It depends on the task. Among models available today, on our benchmarks and licensed sources, GLM 5.3 Flash ranks higher for agents and tool use, professional work, reasoning and knowledge, writing and sticking to the facts.

Which is cheaper, Inkling or GLM 5.3 Flash?

GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.24 per million tokens (three input to one output), against $1.72 for Inkling.

Which is faster, Inkling or GLM 5.3 Flash?

Inkling writes about 166 tokens a second on its usual API, against 49 for GLM 5.3 Flash (Artificial Analysis).

Run Inkling and GLM 5.3 Flash on your own prompt

Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.