Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) vs GLM-5.3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) by Anthropic or GLM-5.3 (Max) by Z AI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) scores 4.9 points higher (49.7 vs 44.8) but costs 2.3× as much to run the benchmark ($5868 vs $2503; both flagship class). Pick Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GLM-5.3 (Max).
| Metric | Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 49.7 | 44.8 | −9.9% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 9.9% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,867.76 | $2,503.48 | −57.3% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 57.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 35.31s | 28.73s | −18.6% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 18.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $25.0 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh): 9.9% less intelligence, 57.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 18.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh) 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 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
Claude Opus 5 (Xhigh)GLM-5.3 (Max)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-5-xhigh/glm-5-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-opus-5-xhigh/glm-5-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill