GLM-5.3-Flash vs GPT-5.6 Terra (Max)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3-Flash 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 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) scores 0.3 points higher (42.1 vs 41.8) but costs 8.2× as much to run the benchmark ($2501 vs $306; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) when you need intelligence above 41.8, and GLM-5.3-Flash when 41.8 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3-Flash | GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 42.1 | +0.7% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 0.7% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $305.52 | $2,500.72 | +718.5% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 8.2× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 37.07s | 113.99s | +207.5% GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) is 207.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.50 | $2.00 / $12.0 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
GPT-5.6 Terra (Max) vs GLM-5.3-Flash: 0.7% more intelligence, 718.5% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 207.5% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3-Flash is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- 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-5.3-FlashGPT-5.6 Terra (Max)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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