GLM-5.3 (Low) vs GPT-5 mini (High)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Low) by Z AI or GPT-5 mini (High) 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
GLM-5.3 (Low) scores 17.5 points higher (34.3 vs 16.8) but costs 5.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1013 vs $189; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Low) when you need intelligence above 16.8, and GPT-5 mini (High) when 16.8 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Low) | GPT-5 mini (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 16.8 | −51.0% GPT-5 mini (High) is 51.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,012.50 | $188.66 | −81.4% GPT-5 mini (High) is 81.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.17s | 58.72s | +88.4% GPT-5 mini (High) is 88.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $0.25 / $2.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
GPT-5 mini (High) vs GLM-5.3 (Low): 51.0% less intelligence, 81.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 88.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3 (Low) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
GLM-5.3 (Low)GPT-5 mini (High)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-5-3-low/gpt-5-mini · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3-low/gpt-5-mini?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill