GLM-5.3 (Low) vs Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Low) by Z AI or Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick GLM-5.3 (Low)
Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) vs GLM-5.3 (Low): 37.6% less intelligence, 13.1% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 252.1% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Low) | Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 34.3 | 21.4 | −37.6% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 37.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,012.50 | $1,145.36 | +13.1% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 13.1% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.49s | 110.87s | +252.1% Qwen3.6 27B (Reasonin… is 252.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $0.60 / $3.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
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.
- Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
GLM-5.3 (Low)Qwen3.6 27B (Reasoning)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-low/qwen3-6-27b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3-low/qwen3-6-27b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill