Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) vs GLM-5.3-Flash
Which is better for the money: Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) by Google or GLM-5.3-Flash by Z AI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-11-03.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) scores 29.9 points higher (57.7 vs 27.8) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($5903 vs $378; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) when you need intelligence above 27.8, and GLM-5.3-Flash when 27.8 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) | GLM-5.3-Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 57.7 | 27.8 | −51.8% GLM-5.3-Flash is 51.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,903.03 | $377.94 | −93.6% GLM-5.3-Flash is 93.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 32.20s | 35.14s | +9.1% GLM-5.3-Flash is 9.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $0.15 / $0.50 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text, Image |
GLM-5.3-Flash vs Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium): 51.8% less intelligence, 93.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 9.1% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- GLM-5.3-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Terra (High) scores 42.30 for $267.
Gemini 4 Carbon (Medium)GLM-5.3-FlashToday'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-4-carbon-medium/glm-5-3-flash · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-4-carbon-medium/glm-5-3-flash?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill