Grok 4.3 vs GLM-5.2
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
| Specification |
by xAI
|
by Z.AI
2 providers:
Together $1.40/$4.40
Z.AI $1.40/$4.40
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current flagship | Current flagship Open weights |
| Released | Apr 30, 2026 | Jun 13, 2026 |
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $1.25/Mtok | $1.40/Mtok |
| Output | $2.50/Mtok | $4.40/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $1.56/Mtok | $2.15/Mtok |
| Cached input | — | $0.260/Mtok |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
textimage
|
text
|
| Benchmarks sources: xAI model card, Artificial Analysis / Vellum LLM Leaderboard | ||
| Avg benchmark score | 72.4 | 76 |
| Perf / dollar | 46.3 | 35.3 |
| GPQA Diamond | 80 | 91.2 |
| SWE-Bench Verified | 65 | 45 vendor |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 38 | 54.7 |
| ARC-AGI 2 | 42 | 30 vendor |
| AIME 2025 | 85 | 70 vendor |
| MMMLU | 86 | 80 vendor |
| BFCL | 78 | 70 vendor |
| HumanEval | 90 | 84 vendor |
| MATH 500 | 88 | 76 vendor |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | — | 81 |
| MCP Atlas | — | 77 |
| AIME 2026 | — | 99.2 |
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | 37.9 | 52.6 |
| AA Agentic Index | 24.2 | 45.7 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | 18 | 4.4 |
| LMSYS Chatbot Arena | 1441.6 ELO | 1469.4 ELO |
| GDPval-AA v2 | — | 1508 ELO |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
xAI — $1.25/$2.50/Mtok
|
Together — $1.40/$4.40/Mtok
Z.AI — $1.40/$4.40/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Grok 4.3 | GLM-5.2 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $1.56 | $2.15 | $0.59 (27.4%) |
| 10M tokens | $15.63 | $21.5 | $5.88 (27.3%) |
| 100M tokens | $156.25 | $215 | $58.75 (27.3%) |
| 1000M tokens | $1562.5 | $2150 | $587.5 (27.3%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above- cost dominates: $1.56/Mtok blended vs $2.15 — 27.3% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.260/Mtok — 81% off its list input price, a discount Grok 4.3 doesn't offer
- raw capability matters more than price: 76 vs 72.4 average benchmark score
- you want open weights — self-host it, fine-tune it, or exit the API entirely; Grok 4.3 is closed
- provider flexibility: available from 2 providers, so you can price-shop hosts or fail over
The cheaper option here — Grok 4.3 costs $1.56/Mtok blended on xAI.
Summary
Grok 4.3 by xAI costs $1.25/Mtok input and $2.50/Mtok output, with a 1M-token context window. It supports text, image 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 2 providers.
On a blended cost basis, Grok 4.3 is 27.3% cheaper than GLM-5.2.
On benchmarks, GLM-5.2 scores higher (76 vs 72.4) on average. In terms of value, Grok 4.3 has better performance per dollar (46.3 vs 35.3).
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.