GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Grok 4.6 (Medium)
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Max) 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 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GLM-5.3 (Max) scores 2.0 points higher (44.8 vs 42.8) but costs 1.6× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $1557; flagship vs premium cost classes). Pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Grok 4.6 (Medium).
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Grok 4.6 (Medium) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 42.8 | −4.5% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 4.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,503.48 | $1,557.04 | −37.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 37.8% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.62s | 31.37s | −0.8% Grok 4.6 (Medium) is 0.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $2.00 / $6.00 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Grok 4.6 (Medium) vs GLM-5.3 (Max): 4.5% less intelligence, 37.8% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 0.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- 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 (Max)Grok 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/grok-4-6-medium · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3/grok-4-6-medium?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill