Z-aiFastReleased 26 August 2026
GLM 5.3 Flash pricing, context and benchmark
GLM-5.3-Flash is a native multimodal model from Z.ai.
1.05M
Input context
944K
Output context
$0.04
Official input
$0.078
Official output
28
AA index
01 · Model Overview
Everything that matters, in one table
Context, pricing, cache, modalities and tooling, from the model registry and Artificial Analysis.
| Model | GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Model ID | z-ai/glm-5.3-flash |
| Provider | Z-ai |
| Release date | 26 August 2026 |
| Status | Generally available |
| Input context | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Output context | 943,718 tokens |
| Official input pricing | $0.04 per 1M tokens |
| Official output pricing | $0.078 per 1M tokens |
| Cache read pricing | $0.03 per 1M tokens (80% off input) |
| Market input pricing | $0.034 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Market output pricing | $0.083 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Highest route pricing | $0.06 in, $0.3 out per 1M |
| Input modalities | text · image · video |
| Output modalities | text |
| Reasoning control | Not exposed |
| Tool support | Text generation only |
| Tokenizer | Other |
| Provider routes | 8 endpoints |
| Artificial Analysis index | 28 (#9 of 26) |
| Speed | 49 tokens/s, 77.75s to first token |
| Knowledge cutoff | Not publicly stated |
Input and output support
| Modality | Input | Output | Billed at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | ✓ yes | ✓ yes | $0.04 in |
| Image | ✓ yes | no | $0.04 in |
| Audio | no | no | not supported |
| Video | ✓ yes | no | $0.04 in |
| File (PDF) | no | no | not supported |
02 · Overview
What is GLM 5.3 Flash?
GLM-5.3-Flash is a native multimodal model from Z.ai.
It is suited for efficient coding and long-horizon agent tasks.
Its hybrid sparse and linear attention architecture maintains accurate long-context behavior while...
GLM 5.3 Flash carries a 1.05M token window, uses the Other tokenizer and is served by Z-ai. On Hoodgen it sits in the Fast tier of the model menu next to its siblings, so you can switch mid conversation without losing the thread.
03 · Release
Release and what changed from the previous version
Released26 August 2026
| Property | GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3 Flash | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026 | 2026 | Same release window |
| Context | 1.05M | 1.05M | Unchanged |
| Max output | 944K | 944K | Unchanged |
| Input price | $0.07 | $0.04 | Cheaper |
| Output price | $1.4 | $0.078 | Cheaper |
| Input modalities | text | text, image, video | Unchanged |
| AA index | 32 | 28 | Newer benchmark run |
04 · Capabilities
Features and capabilities
◉
Vision
Screenshots, charts and photographed documents are read at the text token rate.
♪
Audio and video
Calls, meetings and screen recordings can be summarised in one pass.
⚡
Prompt caching
Cached input costs $0.03 per million instead of $0.04, so stable prefixes get cheaper.
06 · Benchmarks
Benchmark results and performance
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0.1 blends nine evaluations. GLM 5.3 Flash scores 28 , ranking #9 of 26.
Intelligence index
28
#9 of 26
Cost per task
$0.58
weighted average per index task
Time per task
45.7m
inference time
Output speed
49
tokens per second
Index score and cost per task
Scale: index 0 to 70, cost 0 to $20. Sub scores are not published per evaluation, so none are invented here.
07 · Use cases
What can you do with GLM 5.3 Flash?
High volume drafts
Captions, titles, product blurbs and rewrite passes where cost per call dominates.
Inline assistants
Autocomplete, quick replies and menu helpers that must answer inside a second.
Batch classification
Tagging, routing and extraction across thousands of short inputs.
Cheap agent loops
Tool calling loops that do not need frontier grade reasoning.
08 · Cost levers
Prompt caching and how to cut the bill
Cached input bills at $0.03 per million instead of $0.04, a 80% discount. Keep the system prompt and documents first and the changing question last, so every call hits the cache.
09 · Pricing
GLM 5.3 Flash pricing
Official pricing
List price
$0.04 / 1M in
$0.078 / 1M out
- $0.03 cached input
- 1.05M context
- text, image, video input
Cheapest route
$0.034 / 1M in
$0.083 / 1M out
- 8 routes on OpenRouter
- What Hoodgen routes to first
- Same model, lower bill
Highest route
$0.06 / 1M in
$0.3 / 1M out
- Priority or premium tier
- Best under load
- Use for latency critical calls
Market pricing, every route
| Provider | Tier | Input | Output | Cache read | Uptime 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relace | standard | $0.034 | $0.083 | $0.03 | 100.0% |
| Wafer | standard | $0.035 | $0.184 | $0.034 | 100.0% |
| PrimeIntellect | standard | $0.052 | $0.25 | $0.01 | 98.7% |
| Wafer | standard | $0.054 | $0.2 | $0.053 | 100.0% |
| Morph | standard | $0.06 | $0.122 | $0.026 | 100.0% |
| OpenInference | standard | $0.06 | $0.3 | $0.03 | 100.0% |
| Darkbloom | standard | $0.065 | $0.18 | $0.012 | 98.9% |
| Tenstorrent | standard | $0.075 | $0.25 | $0.015 | 99.9% |
API pricing and cost calculator
| Rate | Per call | Total | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest route | $0.0008 | $0.38 | 358 |
| List price | $0.0008 | $0.40 | 379 |
| Highest route | $0.0016 | $0.82 | 784 |
10 · Developers
API and developer information
| Model ID | z-ai/glm-5.3-flash |
| Endpoint | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions |
| Parameters | prompt and max_tokens |
| Streaming | Yes, server sent events |
| Modality string | text+image+video->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-flash",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarise this document." }],
"max_tokens": 1024
}'11 · Limitations
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. |
| Depth ceiling | Fast tier: strong on throughput, weaker than flagship tiers on long multi step reasoning. |
12 · Comparison
GLM 5.3 Flash vs other Z-ai models
| Model | Context | Input /1M | Output /1M | AA index | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLM 5.3 Flash | 1.05M | $0.04 | $0.078 | 28 | 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 | 1.05M | $0.07 | $1.4 | 32 | 2026 |
13 · Privacy
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.
14 · FAQ
GLM 5.3 Flash questions, answered
GLM 5.3 Flash is a fast model from Z-ai, released 26 August 2026. GLM-5.3-Flash is a native multimodal model from Z.ai.
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Start chatting with GLM 5.3 Flash
Free to try on Hoodgen AI, with a live credit estimate before every send. No API key, no setup.