GLM-5.3 hits the API at $1.4/$4.4 per million tokens
After a https://venturebeat.com/technology/glm-5-3-is-here-with-advanced-cyber-capabilities-and-reportedly-already-found-a-serious-vulnerability-in-cursor">stunning debut last week with cyber capabilities so advanced they reportedly found a previously undetected vulnerability in Cursor, GLM-5.3, the new frontier open source language model from Chinese startup z.ai, has https://x.com/Zai_org/status/2089816129011098048?s=20">now hit the application programming interface (API) — allowing developers the ability to build atop it and plug it into their agents and applications.
Developers who previously subscribed to a GLM Coding Plan are currently limited to the OpenAI Chat Completions-compatible protocol.
Z.ai said it plans to make the model's weights openly available, but a precise date and licensing remain to be seen.
On the API, the price is unchanged from GLM-5.2: $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output tokens.
Cached input costs $0.26 per million tokens, while Z.ai currently lists cached-input storage as free for a limited time.
That means developers can move to the new generation without taking a higher posted per-token rate from Z.ai, even as the company claims substantially stronger coding and long-horizon agent performance.
At those rates, GLM-5.3 sits well below several of the highest-end frontier APIs.
Model | Input ($/1M) | Output ($/1M) | Total ($/1M) | Source |
Muse Spark 1.2 Contributor | $0.10 | $0.20 | $0.30 | |
MiMo-V2.5 Flash | $0.10 | $0.30 | $0.40 | |
DeepSeek-V4-Flash — off-peak | $0.22 | $0.66 | $0.88 | https://x.com/deepseek_ai/status/2087864589895798968">DeepSeek |
GPT-5.6 Luna | $0.20 | $1.20 | $1.40 | https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/">OpenAI |
MiniMax-M3 | $0.30 | $1.20 | $1.50 | https://platform.minimax.io/subscribe/token-plan?tab=api-enterprise">MiniMax |
LongCat-2.0 — limited-time promo | $0.30 | $1.20 | $1.50 | https://longcat.chat/platform/docs/APIPayAsYouGo.html">LongCat |
DeepSeek-V4-Flash — peak hours | $0.44 | $1.32 | $1.76 | https://x.com/deepseek_ai/status/2087864589895798968">DeepSeek |
MiMo-V2.5 | $0.40 | $2.00 | $2.40 | |
DeepSeek-V4-Pro — off-peak | $0.66 | $1.98 | $2.64 | https://x.com/deepseek_ai/status/2087864589895798968">DeepSeek |
LongCat-2.0 — standard | $0.75 | $2.95 | $3.70 | https://longcat.chat/platform/docs/APIPayAsYouGo.html">LongCat |
MiMo-V2.5 Pro (≤256K) | $1.00 | $3.00 | $4.00 | |
Gemini 3.6 Flash — through Dec. 31, 2026 | $0.75 | $3.75 | $4.50 | |
Gemini 3.7 Flash — through Dec. 31, 2026 | $0.75 | $3.75 | $4.50 | |
DeepSeek-V4-Pro — peak hours | $1.32 | $3.96 | $5.28 | https://x.com/deepseek_ai/status/2087864589895798968">DeepSeek |
Muse Spark 1.1 / 1.2 | $1.25 | $4.25 | $5.50 | |
GLM-5.3 | $1.40 | $4.40 | $5.80 | |
Grok 4.6 — <200K prompt tokens | $2.00 | $6.00 | $8.00 | |
MiMo-V2.5 Pro (>256K) | $2.00 | $6.00 | $8.00 | |
Qwen3.8-Max | $2.00 | $6.00 | $8.00 | https://www.qwencloud.com/models/qwen3.8-max">QwenCloud |
Gemini 3.6 Flash — starting Jan. 1, 2027 | $1.50 | $7.50 | $9.00 | |
Gemini 3.7 Flash — starting Jan. 1, 2027 | $1.50 | $7.50 | $9.00 | |
GPT-5.6 Terra | $2.00 | $12.00 | $14.00 | https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/">OpenAI |
Grok 4.6 — ≥200K prompt tokens | $4.00 | $12.00 | $16.00 | |
GPT-5.4 | $2.50 | $15.00 | $17.50 | https://openai.com/api/pricing/">OpenAI |
Kimi K3 | $3.00 | $15.00 | $18.00 | https://platform.kimi.ai/docs/pricing/chat-k3">Moonshot AI |
Claude Opus 5 | $5.00 | $25.00 | $30.00 | https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/pricing">Anthropic |
Sakana Fugu Ultra (≤272K) | $5.00 | $30.00 | $35.00 | https://console.sakana.ai/pricing#subscription-plan">Sakana AI |
GPT-5.6 Sol — Standard mode | $5.00 | $30.00 | $35.00 | https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/">OpenAI |
Claude Fable 5 / Claude Mythos 5 | $10.00 | $50.00 | $60.00 | https://platform.claude.com/docs/en/about-claude/models/overview">Anthropic |
GPT-5.6 Sol — Fast mode | $10.00 | $60.00 | $70.00 | https://openai.com/index/advancing-the-price-performance-frontier-with-gpt-5-6/">OpenAI |
Using the simple VentureBeat comparison of one million input tokens plus one million output tokens, GLM-5.3 comes to $5.80, versus $8 for https://venturebeat.com/technology/spacexai-debuts-grok-4-6-overtaking-kimi-k3s-performance-and-matching-gpt-5-6-sol-for-worlds-third-best-on-artificial-analysis">Grok 4.6 at its lower context rate, $18 forhttps://venturebeat.com/technology/kimi-k3s-full-weights-are-here-but-theyre-open-with-a-caveat-what-enterprises-should-know"> Kimi K3, $30 for https://venturebeat.com/orchestration/anthropic-launches-claude-opus-5-a-cheaper-ai-model-for-coding-agents-and-enterprise-workflows">Claude Opus 5 and $35 for https://venturebeat.com/technology/openai-unveils-gpt-5-6-sol-terra-and-luna-models-but-only-accessible-to-limited-preview-partners-for-now-per-us-gov">GPT-5.6 Sol.
That is not a workload-cost estimate — real bills depend heavily on the input/output mix, caching and token consumption — but it makes the relative API price tier easy to see.
GLM-5.3 is not the cheapest capable model available.
Google’s current introductory price for Gemini 3.7 Flash is $0.75 per million input tokens and $3.75 per million output tokens through Dec. 31, 2026, while OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna is priced at $0.20 input and $1.20 output.
Still, Z.ai’s price puts GLM-5.3 into a notably lower cost band than the premium frontier models it is increasingly benchmarked against.
That comparison has become more relevant following the latest independent results. https://x.com/ArtificialAnlys/status/2089830890709135426/photo/1">Artificial Analysis gives GLM-5.3 a score of 60 on its Intelligence Index, tying Kimi K3 as the top performing open weights model in the world, and scoring seven points higher than GLM-5.2.
I
ts analysis also estimates GLM-5.3 at about $0.68 per Intelligence Index task, versus roughly $0.44 for GLM-5.2, despite the identical API token prices.
The difference underscores an important caveat in headline API pricing: Artificial Analysis found GLM-5.3 more verbose than its predecessor, so flat per-token rates do not necessarily mean flat costs for a completed workload.
For developers, though, the immediate change is straightforward: GLM-5.3 is now callable through Z.ai’s API at the same $1.40/$4.40 per-million-token rate as GLM-5.2, giving teams another relatively low-cost option for testing frontier-class coding and agent workloads.