GLM-5.3-Flash vs Qwen3.8 27B

GLM-5.3-Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 80/100 against Qwen3.8 27B (67). It leads on capability, price, inputs & features and context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.

GLM-5.3-Flash is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.50 output per million tokens (official Z.AI API price). Qwen3.8 27B costs $0.40 input / $2.50 output per million tokens (median across 39 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.237 per million tokens for GLM-5.3-Flash versus $0.925 for Qwen3.8 27B (3.9× as much).

GLM-5.3-Flash scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GLM-5.3-Flash 151.9 (#42 of 148) and Qwen3.8 27B 149.4 (#53 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (149.4–154.3 vs 147.5–151.6), so treat the gap as small.

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GLM-5.3-Flash and Qwen3.8 27B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GLM-5.3-Flash leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.

GLM-5.3-Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Qwen3.8 27B. Maximum output per response: GLM-5.3-Flash up to 131,072, Qwen3.8 27B up to 32,768 tokens.

GLM-5.3-Flash accepts text, images, PDFs and video; Qwen3.8 27B accepts text, images and video. GLM-5.3-Flash handles the widest range of inputs.

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

GLM-5.3-Flash is the newest, released Aug 26, 2026. Qwen3.8 27B came out Aug 14, 2026.

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.