GLM 5.3 pricing, context and benchmark
GLM-5.3 is a large-scale reasoning model from Z.ai, built for complex software engineering and long-horizon agent tasks.
Everything that matters, in one table
Context, pricing, cache, modalities and tooling, from the model registry and Artificial Analysis.
| Model | GLM 5.3 |
| Model ID | z-ai/glm-5.3 |
| Provider | Z-ai |
| Release date | 18 August 2026 |
| Status | Generally available |
| Input context | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Output context | 943,718 tokens |
| Official input pricing | $0.07 per 1M tokens |
| Official output pricing | $1.4 per 1M tokens |
| Cache read pricing | $0.266 per 1M tokens (81% off input) |
| Market input pricing | $0.07 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Market output pricing | $1.4 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Highest route pricing | $0.19 in, $4.4 out per 1M |
| Input modalities | text |
| Output modalities | text |
| Reasoning control | Not exposed |
| Tool support | Text generation only |
| Tokenizer | Other |
| Provider routes | 8 endpoints |
| Artificial Analysis index | 32 (#3 of 26) |
| Speed | 66 tokens/s, 59.01s to first token |
| Knowledge cutoff | Not publicly stated |
Input and output support
| Modality | Input | Output | Billed at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | ✓ yes | ✓ yes | $0.07 in |
| Image | no | no | not supported |
| Audio | no | no | not supported |
| Video | no | no | not supported |
| File (PDF) | no | no | not supported |
What is GLM 5.3?
GLM-5.3 is a large-scale reasoning model from Z.ai, built for complex software engineering and long-horizon agent tasks.
It supports text input and output with a 1M-token context window, and improves...
GLM 5.3 carries a 1.05M token window, uses the Other tokenizer and is served by Z-ai. On Hoodgen it sits in the Reasoning tier of the model menu next to its siblings, so you can switch mid conversation without losing the thread.
Release and what changed from the previous version
This is the only release of GLM 5.3 on OpenRouter, released 18 August 2026. The provider has not published a knowledge cutoff, so treat training data as recent but unconfirmed for very new events.
Features and capabilities
Benchmark results and performance
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0.1 blends nine evaluations. GLM 5.3 scores 32 , ranking #3 of 26.
What can you do with GLM 5.3?
Prompt caching and how to cut the bill
Cached input bills at $0.266 per million instead of $0.07, a 81% discount. Keep the system prompt and documents first and the changing question last, so every call hits the cache.
GLM 5.3 pricing
Official pricing
- $0.266 cached input
- 1.05M context
- text input
- 8 routes on OpenRouter
- What Hoodgen routes to first
- Same model, lower bill
- Priority or premium tier
- Best under load
- Use for latency critical calls
Market pricing, every route
| Provider | Tier | Input | Output | Cache read | Uptime 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wafer | standard | $0.07 | $1.4 | $0.069 | 100.0% |
| Relace | standard | $0.07 | $4.384 | $0.07 | 100.0% |
| InferenceNet | standard | $0.08 | $3.6 | $0.076 | 100.0% |
| InferenceNet | standard | $0.08 | $3.6 | $0.076 | 100.0% |
| Reka | standard | $0.15 | $3 | $0.12 | 96.9% |
| Wafer | standard | $0.179 | $1.4 | $0.178 | 100.0% |
| AkashML | standard | $0.19 | $4.4 | $0.19 | 100.0% |
| Makora | standard | $0.35 | $3.2 | $0.14 | 100.0% |
API pricing and cost calculator
| Rate | Per call | Total | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest route | $0.0035 | $1.74 | 1656 |
| List price | $0.0059 | $2.93 | 2780 |
| Highest route | $0.0104 | $5.20 | 4941 |
API and developer information
| Model ID | z-ai/glm-5.3 |
| Endpoint | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions |
| Parameters | prompt and max_tokens |
| Streaming | Yes, server sent events |
| Modality string | text->text |
| Max prompt tokens | 1,048,576 |
| Max completion tokens | 943,718 |
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "z-ai/glm-5.3",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarise this document." }],
"max_tokens": 1024
}'Model limitations
| Text only output | It cannot generate images, audio or video. Pair it with an image model on Hoodgen when you need visuals. |
| Output cap | 943,718 tokens per request. Long deliverables have to be chunked. |
| Knowledge cutoff | The provider does not state a fixed cutoff for every release. Verify very recent events against search. |
GLM 5.3 vs other Z-ai models
| Model | Context | Input /1M | Output /1M | AA index | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLM 5.3 | 1.05M | $0.07 | $1.4 | 32 | 2026 |
| GLM 5.3 Prime | 1M | $2.8 | $8.8 | n/a | Sep 2026 |
| GLM 5.3 FlashX | 1.05M | $0.37 | $1.25 | n/a | Sep 2026 |
| GLM 5.3 Flash | 1.05M | $0.04 | $0.078 | 28 | 2026 |
Privacy and data policy
- On Hoodgen, prompts and attachments answer that request and stay in your conversation history so you can reopen it. They are not used to train models.
- Requests route through OpenRouter to Z-ai and are covered by that provider's API terms.
- Do not paste secrets or personal data you would not send to any hosted model.
GLM 5.3 questions, answered
Start chatting with GLM 5.3
Free to try on Hoodgen AI, with a live credit estimate before every send. No API key, no setup.