text model comparison
GLM-5.3-Flash vs Mercury 2.5
GLM-5.3-Flash and Mercury 2.5 are both current text models, from Z.ai and Inception. GLM-5.3-Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Mercury 2.5, $0.15 vs $0.20. GLM-5.3-Flash has the larger context window, 1,000,000 vs 260,000 tokens.
Data verified October 13, 2026 · Dataset 2026-10-13
Side by side
Standard-tier prices in effect today. The better value in each row is highlighted.
| Fact | GLM-5.3-Flash | Mercury 2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M input tokens | $0.15 (better) | $0.20 |
| Price per 1M output tokens | $0.50 (better) | $0.75 |
| Cost of 10M input and 2M output tokens | $2.50 (better) | $3.50 |
| Arena Text | 1475 Elo (#21 of 49) | Not measured |
| GPQA Diamond | 90.2% (#27 of 40) | Not measured |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) | 55.8% (#31 of 40) | Not measured |
| Provider | Z.ai | Inception |
| Release date | August 26, 2026 | September 8, 2026 |
| Access | API and open weights | API only |
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens | 260,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Input | text, image, video | text |
| Output | text | text |
When to choose each
GLM-5.3-Flash
Best for
- Low-cost coding from screenshots or screen recordings
- Document and research agents on a budget
Watch out for
- Thinking cannot be disabled
- A faster GLM-5.3-FlashX is a separate model id at $0.37 input and $1.25 output per 1M tokens
Mercury 2.5
Best for
- Latency-critical agent loops and voice agents
- High-throughput, low-cost text generation
Watch out for
- Inception publishes no benchmark scores for it, and no independent score is recorded here
- The recorded rates are list prices; an 80% launch discount was running with no published end date
GLM-5.3-Flash vs Mercury 2.5 FAQ
Which is cheaper, GLM-5.3-Flash or Mercury 2.5?
GLM-5.3-Flash is 25% cheaper per 1M input tokens than Mercury 2.5, $0.15 vs $0.20. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, GLM-5.3-Flash costs $2.50 and Mercury 2.5 $3.50 at standard rates.
Which has the larger context window, GLM-5.3-Flash or Mercury 2.5?
GLM-5.3-Flash has the larger context window, 1,000,000 vs 260,000 tokens.
Can I run GLM-5.3-Flash or Mercury 2.5 myself?
GLM-5.3-Flash is released as open weights you can run yourself; Mercury 2.5 is available through its provider's API only.
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Production evaluation
Choosing between GLM-5.3-Flash and Mercury 2.5?
Public benchmarks narrow the shortlist. We run both on your own tasks, data and cost limits, then build the routing and review controls to run the winner in production.
- A head-to-head evaluation on your real workload
- Routing between models by cost and difficulty