Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) vs GLM-5.3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) by Anthropic or GLM-5.3 (Low) by Z AI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) scores 7.5 points higher (41.8 vs 34.3) but costs 6.8× as much to run the benchmark ($6874 vs $1013; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) when you need intelligence above 34.3, and GLM-5.3 (Low) when 34.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 34.3 | −17.9% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 17.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,873.86 | $1,012.50 | −85.3% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 85.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 36.92s | 31.21s | −15.5% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 15.5% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Low) vs Claude Opus 4.8 (Max): 17.9% less intelligence, 85.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 15.5% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 4.8 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- GLM-5.3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Claude Opus 4.8 (Max)GLM-5.3 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-4-8/glm-5-3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-4-8/glm-5-3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill