GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Mistral Small 3.2
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Max) by Z AI or Mistral Small 3.2 by Mistral? 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 37.8 points higher (44.8 vs 7.0) but costs 21× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $122; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 7.0, and Mistral Small 3.2 when 7.0 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Mistral Small 3.2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 7.0 | −84.4% Mistral Small 3.2 is 84.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,503.48 | $121.78 | −95.1% Mistral Small 3.2 is 95.1% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.62s | 12.54s | −60.3% Mistral Small 3.2 is 60.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $0.07 / $0.20 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 3.2 vs GLM-5.3 (Max): 84.4% less intelligence, 95.1% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 60.3% 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.
- Mistral Small 3.2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
GLM-5.3 (Max)Mistral Small 3.2Today'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/mistral-small-3-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3/mistral-small-3-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill