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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen3 Coder Flash

Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3 Coder Flash 50, GLM-4.5-Air 49). The right pick depends on what you value most.

  1. Z.ai (Zhipu)

    GLM-4.5-Air

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    49/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $1.10
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove GLM-4.5-Air

  2. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Coder Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $1.50
    • Context1M
    Full specs Remove Qwen3 Coder Flash

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Too close to call

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 Coder Flash 50/100, GLM-4.5-Air 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GLM-4.5-Air on price and Qwen3 Coder Flash for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

  • CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
  • Lowest priceGLM-4.5-AirGLM-4.5-Air $0.425 · Qwen3 Coder Flash $0.60 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3 Coder FlashQwen3 Coder Flash 1,000,000 · GLM-4.5-Air 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsGLM-4.5-Air: Text · Qwen3 Coder Flash: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGLM-4.5-AirQwen3 Coder Flash
Price50%6860
Inputs & features30%3525
Context window20%2460
Overall100%49/10050/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen3 Coder Flash specifications side by side
SpecificationGLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu)Qwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.20 (best)$0.30
Output$1.10 (best)$1.50
Cached input$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.425 (best)$0.60
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Z.AI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens1,000,000 tokens (best)
Max output98,304 tokens (best)65,536 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model IDglm-4.5-airqwen3-coder-flash
API providers13 (best)10
ReleasedJul 28, 2025Jul 28, 2025
Knowledge cutoffApr 2025Apr 2025
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
  • Qwen3 Coder Flash$6.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GLM-4.5-Air or Qwen3 Coder Flash?

It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Qwen3 Coder Flash 50/100, GLM-4.5-Air 49/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: GLM-4.5-Air on price and Qwen3 Coder Flash for long inputs. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, GLM-4.5-Air or Qwen3 Coder Flash?

GLM-4.5-Air is cheaper at $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3 Coder Flash costs $0.30 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.425 per million tokens for GLM-4.5-Air versus $0.60 for Qwen3 Coder Flash (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet and Qwen3 Coder Flash has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GLM-4.5-Air and Qwen3 Coder Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Coder Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 131,072 for GLM-4.5-Air. Maximum output per response: GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304, Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GLM-4.5-Air accepts text; Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

GLM-4.5-Air publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Qwen3 Coder Flash is proprietary.

Which is newer?

GLM-4.5-Air is the newest, released Jul 28, 2025. Qwen3 Coder Flash came out Jul 28, 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GLM-4.5-Air Apr 2025, Qwen3 Coder Flash Apr 2025.

How do you decide the winner?

Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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