GLM-5.2 (Max) vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.2 (Max) by Z AI or GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) by OpenAI? 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
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 8.4 points higher (42.1 vs 33.7) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $2097; both flagship class). Pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise GLM-5.2 (Max).
| Metric | GLM-5.2 (Max) | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 33.7 | 42.1 | +24.9% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 24.9% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,097.29 | $2,500.72 | +19.2% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 19.2% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 28.14s | 106.58s | +278.7% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 278.7% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs GLM-5.2 (Max): 24.9% more intelligence, 19.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 278.7% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.2 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
GLM-5.2 (Max)GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)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/glm-5-2/gpt-5-6-terra · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-2/gpt-5-6-terra?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill