Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) vs GLM-5.3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Claude Sonnet 5 (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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) scores 3.9 points higher (38.2 vs 34.3) but costs 6.9× as much to run the benchmark ($6998 vs $1013; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) when you need intelligence above 34.3, and GLM-5.3 (Low) when 34.3 is enough.
| Metric | Claude Sonnet 5 (Max) | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.2 | 34.3 | −10.2% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 10.2% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $6,998.25 | $1,012.50 | −85.5% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 85.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 190.29s | 31.07s | −83.7% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 83.7% faster |
| 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 (Max): 10.2% less intelligence, 85.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 83.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Claude Sonnet 5 (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 Sonnet 5 (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-sonnet-5/glm-5-3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/claude-sonnet-5/glm-5-3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill