Gemini 4 Carbon (High) vs GLM-5.3 (Low)
Which is better for the money: Gemini 4 Carbon (High) 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 2026-10-29.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Gemini 4 Carbon (High) scores 36.3 points higher (59.4 vs 23.1) but costs 6.8× as much to run the benchmark ($8240 vs $1219; flagship vs premium cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 4 Carbon (High) when you need intelligence above 23.1, and GLM-5.3 (Low) when 23.1 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 4 Carbon (High) | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 59.4 | 23.1 | −61.1% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 61.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $8,239.69 | $1,218.55 | −85.2% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 85.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 105.19s | 29.85s | −71.6% GLM-5.3 (Low) is 71.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $4.00 / $20.0 | $1.40 / $4.40 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
GLM-5.3 (Low) vs Gemini 4 Carbon (High): 61.1% less intelligence, 85.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 71.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- GLM-5.3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 54.50 for $1124.
Gemini 4 Carbon (High)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/gemini-4-carbon/glm-5-3-low · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gemini-4-carbon/glm-5-3-low?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill