Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) vs GLM-5.3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) 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
GLM-5.3 (Max) scores 8.9 points higher (44.8 vs 35.9) but costs 5.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $482; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 35.9, and Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallbac… when 35.9 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 35.9 | 44.8 | +24.8% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 24.8% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $482.13 | $2,503.48 | +419.3% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 5.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 5.94s | 28.73s | +383.7% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 383.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback): 24.8% more intelligence, 419.3% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 383.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- 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 Sonnet 5.5 (Low, Default Fallback)GLM-5.3 (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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