Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite vs GLM-5.3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite by Google 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 18.7 points higher (34.3 vs 15.6) but costs 6.5× as much to run the benchmark ($1013 vs $156; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 15.6, and Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite when 15.6 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 15.6 | 34.3 | +119.9% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 2.2× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $155.87 | $1,012.50 | +549.6% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 6.5× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.08s | 31.07s | +411.0% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 411.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $1.50 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Low) vs Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: 119.9% more intelligence, 549.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 411.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
- GLM-5.3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteGLM-5.3 (Low)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview/glm-5-3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-3-1-flash-lite-preview/glm-5-3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill