Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GLM-5.1 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite by Google or GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) 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-5.1 (Reasoning) scores 3.9 points higher (26.1 vs 22.2) but costs 4.1× as much to run the benchmark ($1487 vs $366; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 22.2, and Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite when 22.2 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 22.2 | 26.1 | +17.6% GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) is 17.6% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $365.63 | $1,486.78 | +306.6% GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) is 4.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 8.69s | 60.66s | +598.0% GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) is 598.0% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $2.50 | $1.28 / $4.07 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) vs Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite: 17.6% more intelligence, 306.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 598.0% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- GLM-5.1 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Gemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGLM-5.1 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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