GLM 4.6 API pricing
Zhipu · Mid-range price tier · MIT · released 2025-09. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $175.00 on GLM 4.6; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, Nova 2 Lite, does it for $170.00. The price we quote for GLM 4.6 has changed 9 times since 2026-08-15, most recently on 2026-11-01 when the quoted host changed (-9.1%); it is now the 9th cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. Buying from Venice rather than at the price we quote lowers the token price by about 13%, for a quantized fp4 build. It holds the FinOps Friendly badge: top-40% Arena quality, top-30% Efficiency, not among the dearest 30%, and no stability flag.
- Input: $0.50 per 1M tokens
- Output: $2.00 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.10 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 205K tokens
- Arena ELO: 1440 as of 2026-11-08
Market position
On blended price ($1.55 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 93% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 9th cheapest of 113. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 45% of priced text models in the catalogue: 167th cheapest of 303. Its Arena ELO of 1440 ranks 52nd of the 160 models that carry one, tied with one other, above 67% of them. With an Arena score of 1440, GLM 4.6 clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
GLM 4.6 is open source: its weights are published under MIT, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token. Its parameter count is not published. Listed capabilities: Text, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 205K context window once costs $0.1025 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 4 different hosts. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Cheapest host: Venice at $0.43 input / $1.75 output per 1M tokens, 13% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. A support ticket workload at 100K requests a month costs $152.00 there against $175.00 at the price we quote, a difference of $23.00 a month. The dearest, Z.AI, charges 1.3x the cheapest.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venice | $0.43 | $1.75 | fp4 |
| DeepInfra (price we quote) | $0.50 | $2.00 | fp4 |
| Novita | $0.55 | $2.20 | bf16 |
| Z.AI (model maker) | $0.60 | $2.20 | fp4 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown. These hosts do not all serve the model at the same numeric precision, so the cheapest is not a like-for-like substitute for the dearest.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where Zhipu publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $139 – $175 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $204 – $260 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $700 – $740 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $465 – $485 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $490 – $550 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $177 – $195 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $232 – $240 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $732 – $900 |
Price history
GLM 4.6 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.55 input / $2.20 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 9 times since then, 7 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-01, was -9.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.50 input / $2.00 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -9.1% against 2026-08-15.
| Date | Old price (in / out) | New price (in / out) | Blended change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-01 | $0.55 / $2.20 | $0.50 / $2.00 | -9.1% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-19 | $0.50 / $2.00 | $0.55 / $2.20 | +10.0% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-10 | $0.43 / $1.75 | $0.50 / $2.00 | +14.5% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-09-09 | $0.55 / $2.20 | $0.43 / $1.75 | -20.6% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-09-08 | $0.43 / $1.75 | $0.55 / $2.20 | +25.9% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
4 earlier changes are not listed.
Alternatives to GLM 4.6
None of the 4 comparable models below costs less than GLM 4.6 on the blended price.
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: Qwen3.5-122B-A10B (Alibaba) at $1.534 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: R1 0528 (DeepSeek) at $1.655 blended, 7% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against GLM 4.6.
- GPT-5.2 Chat (OpenAI): $1.75 in / $14.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1439 (566% more expensive, 1 ELO point lower)
- Claude Sonnet 5 (Anthropic): $2.00 in / $10.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1442 (390% more expensive, 2 ELO points higher)
- GLM 5V Turbo (Zhipu): $1.20 in / $4.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1438 (104% more expensive, 2 ELO points lower)
- Qwen3.5 397B A17B (Alibaba): $0.60 in / $3.60 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1438 (74% more expensive, 2 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 94% cheaper, 6 ELO points lower, out of 43 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Xiaomi), 9% cheaper, 24 ELO points higher, out of 21 models in that price band.
Other models from Zhipu
The 8 nearest to GLM 4.6 in price, of 16 other Zhipu models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- GLM 5.3 FlashX: $0.37 / $1.25
- GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal: $0.37 / $1.25
- GLM 5.3: $0.0699 / $1.40
- GLM 4.5V: $0.60 / $1.80
- GLM 4.5: $0.60 / $2.20
- GLM 4.7: $0.60 / $2.20
- GLM 5: $1.00 / $3.20
- GLM 5 Turbo: $1.20 / $4.00
All 17 Zhipu models and prices
Common questions about GLM 4.6 pricing
- How much does GLM 4.6 cost?
- GLM 4.6 costs $0.50 per 1M input tokens and $2.00 per 1M output tokens at DeepInfra, the host whose rate we quote. DeepInfra serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. The model maker, Z.AI, lists it at $0.60 per 1M input tokens and $2.20 per 1M output tokens. Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for GLM 4.6?
- Cheapest host: Venice at $0.43 input / $1.75 output per 1M tokens, 13% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. A support ticket workload at 100K requests a month costs $152.00 there against $175.00 at the price we quote, a difference of $23.00 a month. The dearest, Z.AI, charges 1.3x the cheapest. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does GLM 4.6 offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.10 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would GLM 4.6 cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $175 on GLM 4.6 at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can GLM 4.6 be self-hosted?
- Yes. GLM 4.6 is open source: its weights are published under MIT, an OSI-approved licence with no field-of-use limit, so it can be self-hosted as well as bought by the token.
- Has the price of GLM 4.6 changed?
- GLM 4.6 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.55 input / $2.20 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 9 times since then, 7 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-01, was -9.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.50 input / $2.00 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -9.1% against 2026-08-15.
Its weights are published, which changes what you may run yourself: the cost gap between open weights and proprietary APIs.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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