Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5
Cost and capability comparison. For a sample workload of 1,000 input and 500 output tokens across 100,000 requests/month, GLM-5 is cheaper by about $790.00/month.
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GLM-5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | ||
| Arena · Overall(LMArena Elo — higher is better) | 1458✓ | 1446 |
| Arena rank (overall) | #30✓ | #41 |
| Arena · Coding | 1523✓ | 1436 |
| Arena · Math & reasoning | 1400✓ | — |
| Arena · Agentic / tool use | 1408✓ | — |
| Score evidence | Measured | Measured |
| Pricing (USD / 1M tokens) | ||
| Input | $3.00 | $1.00✓ |
| Output | $15.00 | $3.20✓ |
| Cached input (read) | $0.3000 | $0.2000✓ |
| Cache write | $3.75✓ | — |
| Blended(3:1 input:output blend) | $6.00 | $1.55✓ |
| Specs & capabilities | ||
| Provider | Anthropic | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| Context window | 1M (1,000,000)✓ | 205K (204,800) |
| Max output | 64,000 | 131,072✓ |
| Modalities | text, image | text |
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Prompt caching | Yes | Yes |
| Batch pricing | Yes | No |
| Tokenizer | claude | approx |
| Release date | — | — |
| Status | ga | ga |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 2 November 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.
Compare on your own workload
Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GLM-5 are pre-loaded. Adjust the tokens and monthly volume to see which is cheaper for your usage.
Used unless you set active users below.
Results update automatically as you type.
| GLM-5 | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) | $0.00260 | $260.00 | $3,120.00 | 204,800 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | Anthropic | $0.0105 | $1,050.00 | $12,600.00 | 1,000,000 |
FAQ
Which is cheaper, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GLM-5?
For a workload of 1,000 input and 500 output tokens over 100,000 requests/month, GLM-5 is cheaper, costing about $260.00/month versus $1,050.00/month.
What is the context window of Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GLM-5?
Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports 1,000,000 tokens, while GLM-5 supports 204,800 tokens.
Estimates for planning only. Verify current pricing with each provider.