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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Qwen3 Coder Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air

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. Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3 Coder Flash

    Released Jul 28, 2025

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

  2. 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

  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 inputsQwen3 Coder Flash: Text · GLM-4.5-Air: Text
  • Self-hostingGLM-4.5-AirPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3 Coder FlashGLM-4.5-Air
Price50%6068
Inputs & features30%2535
Context window20%6024
Overall100%50/10049/100

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.

Qwen3 Coder Flash vs GLM-4.5-Air specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3 Coder FlashAlibaba (Qwen)GLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu)
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.20 (best)
Output$1.50$1.10 (best)
Cached input—$0.03
Blended (3:1)$0.60$0.425 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Alibaba APIOfficial Z.AI API
Limits
Context window1,000,000 tokens (best)131,072 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens98,304 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYes
Tool callingYesYes
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpen
API model IDqwen3-coder-flashglm-4.5-air
API providers1013 (best)
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.

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

Which should you choose?

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

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, Qwen3 Coder Flash or GLM-4.5-Air?

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. Qwen3 Coder Flash has not been scored yet and GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3 Coder Flash and GLM-4.5-Air 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: Qwen3 Coder Flash up to 65,536, GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3 Coder Flash accepts text; GLM-4.5-Air 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?

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