DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) vs GLM-5.3 (Max)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) by DeepSeek 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 36.3 points higher (44.8 vs 8.5) but costs 99× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $25.4; flagship vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 8.5, and DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) when 8.5 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 8.5 | 44.8 | +427.1% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 5.3× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $25.37 | $2,503.48 | +9767.9% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 99× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 10.23s | 28.79s | +181.4% GLM-5.3 (Max) is 181.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Max) vs DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24): 427.1% more intelligence, 9767.9% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 181.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- 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.
DeepSeek V3 (Dec '24)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/deepseek-v3/glm-5-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v3/glm-5-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill