GLM-5.3-Flash vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3-Flash by Z AI or Grok 4.6 (Medium) by SpaceXAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Grok 4.6 (Medium) scores 1.0 points higher (42.8 vs 41.8) but costs 5.1× as much to run the benchmark ($1557 vs $306; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Grok 4.6 (Medium) when you need intelligence above 41.8, and GLM-5.3-Flash when 41.8 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3-Flash | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 41.8 | 42.8 | +2.4% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 2.4% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $305.52 | $1,557.04 | +409.6% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 5.1× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 39.33s | 31.56s | −19.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 19.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.15 / $0.50 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs GLM-5.3-Flash: 2.4% more intelligence, 409.6% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 19.8% faster 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.
- Grok 4.6 (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GLM-5.3-FlashGrok 4.6 (Medium)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/glm-5-3-flash/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3-flash/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill