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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

GLM-4.5-Air vs Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B comes out ahead, 59 to 49 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.

  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. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

    Released Apr 2025

    59/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.20 / $0.80
    • Context131K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is our pick

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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 priceQwen3-VL 30B-A3BQwen3-VL 30B-A3B $0.35 · GLM-4.5-Air $0.425 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextAbout the sameGLM-4.5-Air 131,072 · Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B 131,072 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3-VL 30B-A3BGLM-4.5-Air: Text · Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
How the score is built
MeasureWeightGLM-4.5-AirQwen3-VL 30B-A3B
Price50%6872
Inputs & features30%3560
Context window20%2424
Overall100%49/10059/100

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-VL 30B-A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationGLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu)Qwen3-VL 30B-A3BAlibaba (Qwen)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.20$0.20
Output$1.10$0.80 (best)
Cached input$0.03—
Blended (3:1)$0.425$0.35 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Z.AI APIOfficial Alibaba API
Limits
Context window131,072 tokens131,072 tokens
Max output98,304 tokens (best)32,768 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoYes
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenOpen
API model IDglm-4.5-airqwen3-vl-30b-a3b
API providers13 (best)1
ReleasedJul 28, 2025Apr 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-VL 30B-A3B$3.60
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: GLM-4.5-Air or Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 59/100 against GLM-4.5-Air (49). It leads on price and inputs & features. 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-VL 30B-A3B?

Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.20 input / $0.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.35 per million tokens for Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B versus $0.425 for GLM-4.5-Air (1.2× 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-VL 30B-A3B 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-VL 30B-A3B 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?

GLM-4.5-Air and Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B share the same 131,072-token context window. Maximum output per response: GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304, Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B up to 32,768 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

GLM-4.5-Air accepts text; Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B accepts text and images. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Yes, both publish their weights, so you can self-host them.

Which is newer?

GLM-4.5-Air is the newest, released Jul 28, 2025. Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B came out Apr 2025. Knowledge cutoff: GLM-4.5-Air Apr 2025, Qwen3-VL 30B-A3B 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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