Claude Sonnet 5 (High) vs GLM-5.3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (High) 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 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GLM-5.3 (Max) scores 13.1 points higher (44.8 vs 31.7) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $2086; both flagship class). Pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (High).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (High) | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 31.7 | 44.8 | +41.3% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 41.3% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,086.04 | $2,503.48 | +20.0% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 20.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.10s | 31.61s | +109.3% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 109.3% 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 (High): 41.3% more intelligence, 20.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 109.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- 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 (High)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-sonnet-5-high/glm-5-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-high/glm-5-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill