GLM-5.1 vs Claude Opus 5 vs Qwen3.6 Max Preview
Claude Opus 5 comes out ahead, 66 to 57 and 54 on our weighted score, though GLM-5.1 is 4.7× cheaper per token.
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-5.1
57/100- ECI149.9
- Price$1.40 / $4.40
- Context200K
- Our pick
AnthropicClaude Opus 5
66/100- ECI162.9
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.6 Max Preview
54/100- ECI149.2
- Price$1.30 / $7.80
- Context262K
Claude Opus 5 is our pick
Claude Opus 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityClaude Opus 5Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 · GLM-5.1 149.9 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2
- Lowest priceGLM-5.1GLM-5.1 $2.15 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview $2.92 · Claude Opus 5 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Opus 5Claude Opus 5 1,000,000 · Qwen3.6 Max Preview 262,144 · GLM-5.1 200,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Opus 5GLM-5.1: Text · Claude Opus 5: Text, Images, PDFs · Qwen3.6 Max Preview: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-5.1Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | GLM-5.1 | Claude Opus 5 | Qwen3.6 Max Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 78 | 94 | 77 |
| Price | 25% | 34 | 2 | 28 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 45 | 80 | 35 |
| Context window | 10% | 32 | 60 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 57/100 | 66/100 | 54/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GLM-5.1Z.ai (Zhipu) | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | Qwen3.6 Max PreviewAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 149.9 | 162.9 (best) | 149.2 |
| ECI rank | #51 of 148 | #5 of 148 (best) | #54 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 89.9% | 93.9% (best) | 87.4% |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 36.8% | 85.6% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 93.3% | 98.9% (best) | 91.1% |
| SWE-bench VerifiedFixing real GitHub issues | 74.2% | — | 76.7% (best) |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 34.0% | 59.9% (best) | 52.0% |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $1.40 | $5.00 | $1.30 (best) |
| Output | $4.40 (best) | $25.00 | $7.80 |
| Cached input | $0.26 | $0.50 | $0.13 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $2.15 (best) | $10.00 | $2.92 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Z.AI API | Official Anthropic API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 200,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 65,536 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | glm-5.1 | claude-opus-5 | qwen3.6-max-preview |
| API providers | 40 (best) | 35 | 10 |
| Released | Apr 7, 2026 | Jul 24, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | May 2026 | Apr 2025 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GLM-5.1$22.80
- Claude Opus 5$100.00
- Qwen3.6 Max Preview$28.60
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GLM-5.1, Claude Opus 5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
Claude Opus 5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 66/100 against GLM-5.1 (57) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview (54). It leads on capability, inputs & features and context window. GLM-5.1 wins on price. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GLM-5.1, Claude Opus 5 or Qwen3.6 Max Preview?
GLM-5.1 is cheaper at $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3.6 Max Preview costs $1.30 input / $7.80 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $2.15 per million tokens for GLM-5.1 versus $2.92 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview (1.4× as much) and $10.00 for Claude Opus 5 (4.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Claude Opus 5 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Claude Opus 5 162.9 (#5 of 148), GLM-5.1 149.9 (#51 of 148) and Qwen3.6 Max Preview 149.2 (#54 of 148). Their confidence ranges do not overlap (160.2–166.7 vs 148.0–151.6), so the gap is a real one. On individual benchmarks: GPQA Diamond — Claude Opus 5 93.9%, GLM-5.1 89.9%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 87.4%; OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025 — Claude Opus 5 98.9%, GLM-5.1 93.3%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 91.1%; SimpleQA Verified — Claude Opus 5 59.9%, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 52.0%, GLM-5.1 34.0%.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Claude Opus 5 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Claude Opus 5 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.6 Max Preview and 200,000 for GLM-5.1. Maximum output per response: GLM-5.1 up to 131,072, Claude Opus 5 up to 128,000, Qwen3.6 Max Preview up to 65,536 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GLM-5.1 accepts text; Claude Opus 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Qwen3.6 Max Preview accepts text. Claude Opus 5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-5.1 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Claude Opus 5 and Qwen3.6 Max Preview is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 5 is the newest, released Jul 24, 2026. Qwen3.6 Max Preview came out Apr 20, 2026; GLM-5.1 came out Apr 7, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 5 May 2026, Qwen3.6 Max Preview 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.
