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Van Data Team

text model comparison

GLM-5.3 vs Grok 4.3

GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 are both current text models, from Z.ai and xAI. Grok 4.3 is 11% cheaper per 1M input tokens than GLM-5.3, $1.25 vs $1.40. On Arena Text, GLM-5.3 scores 1481 Elo and Grok 4.3 1442 Elo (Arena, measured October 28, 2026). Both accept 1,000,000 tokens of context.

Higher Arena Text
GLM-5.31481 Elo against 1442 Elo
Lower price per 1M input tokens
Grok 4.3$1.25 against $1.40

Data verified November 3, 2026 · Dataset 2026-11-03

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Side by side

GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3, line by line

Prices in effect today, compared at the same tier wherever both list one. The better value in each row is highlighted.

FactGLM-5.3Grok 4.3
Price
Price per 1M input tokens$1.40$1.25 (better)
Price per 1M output tokens$4.40$2.50 (better)
Independent benchmarks
Arena Text1481 Elo (#16 of 51) (better)1442 Elo (#36 of 51)
Arena WebDev1623 Elo (#21 of 45) (better)1358 Elo (#44 of 45)
FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)68.8% (#25 of 42) (better)42.8% (#38 of 42)
GPQA Diamond90.9% (#23 of 41) (better)88.8% (#33 of 41)
SimpleQA Verified41% (#29 of 38) (better)33.2% (#32 of 38)
Specs
ProviderZ.aixAI
Release dateAugust 18, 2026Not reported
AccessAPI and open weightsAPI only
Context window1,000,000 tokens1,000,000 tokens
Max output128,000 tokensNot reported
Inputtexttext, image
Outputtexttext

Scores:Arena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Open both in the interactive comparison

Charts

Against every current text model

Where GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 land among the current models of their task, on every independent benchmark, on price and on context.

Where each stands

On Arena Text, GLM-5.3 ranks #16 and Grok 4.3 #36 of 51 current models. Each bar is the share of current models it beats: on score, price and context.

GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 among the current text models, one row per benchmark, price and context window.

Independent benchmarks

Arena Text

GLM-5.3:#16of 51

1,481 Elo · ahead of 68%

Grok 4.3:#36of 51

1,442 Elo · ahead of 30%

Arena WebDev

GLM-5.3:#21of 45

1,623 Elo · ahead of 55%

Grok 4.3:#44of 45

1,358 Elo · ahead of 2%

FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2)

GLM-5.3:#25of 42

68.8% · ahead of 41%

Grok 4.3:#38of 42

42.8% · ahead of 10%

GPQA Diamond

GLM-5.3:#23of 41

90.9% · ahead of 45%

Grok 4.3:#33of 41

88.8% · ahead of 20%

SimpleQA Verified

GLM-5.3:#29of 38

41% · ahead of 22%

Grok 4.3:#32of 38

33.2% · ahead of 16%

Price and context

Price per 1M input tokens

GLM-5.3:#27of 52

$1.40 · cheaper than 49%

Grok 4.3:#23of 52

$1.25 · cheaper than 53%

Price per 1M output tokens

GLM-5.3:#26of 52

$4.40 · cheaper than 51%

Grok 4.3:#17of 52

$2.50 · cheaper than 65%

Context window

GLM-5.3:#26of 64

1M tokens · longer than 22%

Grok 4.3:#26of 64

1M tokens · longer than 22%

Scores fromArena · 2026-11-03Epoch AI · 2026-11-03

Quality against price

Arena Text · measured October 28, 2026

GLM-5.3 scores 1,481 at $2.15; Grok 4.3 scores 1,442 at $1.56 (blended price per 1M tokens). The line joins the current models no other beats on both price and Arena Text score; hover any point to name it.

Quality against priceArena Text score against price for 43 text models, GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 marked.1,2501,3001,3501,4001,4501,5001,550$0.30$1$3$10MOST ATTRACTIVE QUADRANTMedian price $3Median 1,475Blended price per 1M tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scaleArena Text (Elo)GLM-5.3Grok 4.3
Quality against price: the data
Arena Text score against price for 43 text models, GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 marked.
ModelProviderBlended price per 1M tokensArena Text (Elo)
Gemini 4 ArgonGoogle$41,520
Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic$81,509
Muse WonderMeta$81,507
Claude Fable 5Anthropic$201,504
Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic$201,504
Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle$1.501,496
Muse Spark 1.3Meta$21,495
Claude Opus 5Anthropic$101,492
Kimi K3Moonshot Kimi$61,488
GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI$81,485
Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle$31,483
GPT-5.5OpenAI$111,482
Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic$101,482
Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba Qwen$31,482
GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI$41,481
GLM-5.3Z.ai$2.151,481
MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi MiMo$0.541,480
Claude Sonnet 5.5Anthropic$41,477
GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai$0.241,477
GPT-6 AstraOpenAI$201,476
DeepSeek-V4.1-FlashDeepSeek$0.521,476
GPT-5.4OpenAI$5.631,475
Gemini 3 Flash PreviewGoogle$1.131,473
Grok 4.20xAI$1.561,472
GPT-5.6 TerraOpenAI$4.501,467
Grok 4.5xAI$31,465
DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek$1.981,465
Claude Sonnet 5Anthropic$41,462
GPT-6 SolOpenAI$41,458
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGoogle$0.851,456
Grok 4.6xAI$31,455
GPT-5.6 LunaOpenAI$0.451,453
MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi MiMo$0.181,448
Step 5 PreviewStepFun$1.431,448
Grok 4.3xAI$1.561,442
GPT-6 LunaOpenAI$0.201,441
Grok 4.7xAI$31,441
Mistral Large 4Mistral AI$1.051,432
Claude Haiku 5.5Anthropic$0.201,425
GPT-4.1OpenAI$3.501,415
Solar Pro 4Upstage$0.521,388
GPT-4.1 miniOpenAI$0.701,383
GPT-4.1 nanoOpenAI$0.181,322

Cost

What each costs

Example workloads at each provider's listed rates, then every other rate either one lists. The cheaper figure in each row is highlighted.

The same work, priced

For 10M input and 2M output tokens, GLM-5.3 costs 1.3 times as much as Grok 4.3, at each provider's listed rates.

What GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 cost for the same work, at the rates each provider lists.

  • 10M input and 2M output tokens

    GLM-5.3 costs 1.3× as much

    GLM-5.3
    $22.80
    Grok 4.3
    $17.50

  • The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached

    GLM-5.3 costs 1.6× as much

    GLM-5.3
    $12.54
    Grok 4.3
    $8.05
Workload or rateGLM-5.3Grok 4.3
Example workloads
10M input and 2M output tokens$22.80$17.50 (better)
The same, with 9M of the input tokens cached$12.54$8.05 (better)
Other listed rates
1M input tokens, cached$0.26$0.20 (better)

Your own bill will differ. These figures use list prices and example workloads. The AI Model Cost Audit reviews your real usage, shortlists models that score as well for each task for less, and estimates the savings.

Launch price $100, regular price $150

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Verdict

When to choose each

GLM-5.3

Where it leads

  • Higher Arena Text score, 1481 Elo vs 1442 Elo
  • Higher Arena WebDev score, 1623 Elo vs 1358 Elo
  • Higher FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2) score, 68.8% vs 42.8%
  • Higher GPQA Diamond score, 90.9% vs 88.8%
  • Higher SimpleQA Verified score, 41% vs 33.2%
  • Open weights you can run yourself

Best for

  • Long-horizon agentic coding
  • Self-hosted reasoning with permissive weights

Watch out for

  • Text input only, and reasoning cannot be turned off: requests that disable thinking fail
  • The licence requires a Z.ai security review before very large model-as-a-service operators use it commercially
Full GLM-5.3 profile

Grok 4.3

Where it leads

  • Lower input and output prices, $1.25 and $2.50 vs $1.40 and $4.40 per 1M tokens
  • Accepts image input
  • Cheaper cached input, $0.20 vs $0.26 per 1M tokens

Best for

  • General-purpose reasoning, instruction following, and agentic tool-use evaluations

Watch out for

  • The published base rates double when requests reach the provider's 200,000-token long-context threshold
Full Grok 4.3 profile

From benchmark to production

Building on GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3?

Public scores rarely hold on your own data. We test both models on your real tasks, then build the agent or pipeline around the one that wins.

AI Model Cost AuditLaunch price $100, regular price $150What the audit includes

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FAQ

GLM-5.3 vs Grok 4.3 FAQ

Which is cheaper, GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3?

Grok 4.3 is 11% cheaper per 1M input tokens than GLM-5.3, $1.25 vs $1.40. For 10M input and 2M output tokens, GLM-5.3 costs $22.80 and Grok 4.3 $17.50 at standard rates.

Which is cheaper with prompt caching, GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3?

GLM-5.3 charges $0.26 per 1M cached input tokens, 81% below its standard input rate, and Grok 4.3 $0.20, 84% below. With 9M of 10M input tokens cached and 2M output tokens, GLM-5.3 costs $12.54 and Grok 4.3 $8.05.

Which scores higher on independent benchmarks, GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3?

GLM-5.3 leads on Arena Text, 1481 Elo to 1442 Elo; GLM-5.3 leads on Arena WebDev, 1623 Elo to 1358 Elo; GLM-5.3 leads on FrontierMath Tiers 1-3 (v2), 68.8% to 42.8%. Scores are independent evaluations, not either vendor's launch figures.

Which has the larger context window, GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3?

Both accept 1,000,000 tokens of context.

How do GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3 differ in features?

GLM-5.3 takes text input; Grok 4.3 takes text and image.

Can I run GLM-5.3 or Grok 4.3 myself?

GLM-5.3 is released as open weights you can run yourself; Grok 4.3 is available through its provider's API only.

Further reading

More on GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3

Related comparisons

Production evaluation

Choosing between GLM-5.3 and Grok 4.3?

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
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