Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GLM-5.2
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
Gemini 3.6 FlashIntro price
by Google
|
by Z.AI
3 providers:
Fireworks $1.40/$4.40
Together $1.40/$4.40
Z.AI $1.40/$4.40
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship Open weights |
| Released | Jul 21, 2026 | Jun 13, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.750/Mtok | $1.40/Mtok |
| Output | $3.75/Mtok | $4.40/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $1.50/Mtok | $2.15/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.075/Mtok | $0.260/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimageaudiovideo
|
text
|
| Benchmarks sources: Artificial Analysis / Vellum LLM Leaderboard | ||
| Independent composite scores measured for both models — each on its own scale | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | 51.6 | 52.6 |
| AA Agentic Index | 40.5 | 45.7 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 22.1 | 4.4 |
| GDPval-AA v2 | 1422.3 ELO | 1506.1 ELO |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1484 ELO | 1469.4 ELO |
| Per-benchmark results published for GLM-5.2 only — no independent per-benchmark scores exist for Gemini 3.6 Flash yet | ||
| Avg benchmark score | — | 76 |
| Perf / dollar | — | 35.3 |
| GPQA Diamond | — | 91.2 |
| SWE-Bench Verified | — | 45 vendor |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | — | 81 |
| MCP Atlas | — | 77 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | — | 54.7 |
| ARC-AGI 2 | — | 30 vendor |
| AIME 2025 | — | 70 vendor |
| MMMLU | — | 80 vendor |
| BFCL | — | 70 vendor |
| HumanEval | — | 84 vendor |
| MATH 500 | — | 76 vendor |
| AIME 2026 | — | 99.2 |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Google — $0.750/$3.75/Mtok
|
Fireworks — $1.40/$4.40/Mtok
Together — $1.40/$4.40/Mtok
Z.AI — $1.40/$4.40/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Gemini 3.6 Flash | GLM-5.2 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $1.5 | $2.15 | $0.65 (30.2%) |
| 10M tokens | $15 | $21.5 | $6.5 (30.2%) |
| 100M tokens | $150 | $215 | $65 (30.2%) |
| 1000M tokens | $1500 | $2150 | $650 (30.2%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above- cost dominates: $1.50/Mtok blended vs $2.15 — 30.2% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.075/Mtok — 90% off its list input price
- you want open weights — self-host it, fine-tune it, or exit the API entirely; Gemini 3.6 Flash is closed
- provider flexibility: available from 3 providers, so you can price-shop hosts or fail over
Price movement
recorded changes since we began tracking each model · last checked Aug 13, 2026| Model | Changes | Latest move | Old → new $/M |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | 1 | price cut on Aug 13, 2026 | $1.5/$7.5 → $0.75/$3.75/Mtok |
| GLM-5.2 | 0 | — no move | Stable since we began tracking — no change recorded |
The cheaper option here — Gemini 3.6 Flash costs $1.50/Mtok blended on Google.
Summary
Gemini 3.6 Flash by Google costs $0.750/Mtok input and $3.75/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image, audio, video input.
GLM-5.2 by Z.AI costs $1.40/Mtok input and $4.40/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text input and is available from 3 providers.
On a blended cost basis, Gemini 3.6 Flash is 30.2% cheaper than GLM-5.2.
The two aren't directly comparable on average benchmark score: GLM-5.2 has published per-benchmark results, while Gemini 3.6 Flash does not yet — it is measured today on independent composites (see the table above).
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.