Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) vs GLM-5.3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GLM-5.3 (Low) scores 10.0 points higher (34.3 vs 24.3) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($1013 vs $653; both premium class). Pick GLM-5.3 (Low) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Claude Sonnet 5 (Low).
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.3 | 34.3 | +41.2% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 41.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $652.70 | $1,012.50 | +55.1% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 55.1% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.46s | 31.07s | +267.3% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 267.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Low) vs Claude Sonnet 5 (Low): 41.2% more intelligence, 55.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 267.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 50.20 for $521.
- 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 Sonnet 5 (Low)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-sonnet-5-low/glm-5-3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5-low/glm-5-3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill