GLM 5.2 API pricing

Zhipu · Mid-range price tier · MIT · released 2026-06. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.

Outlier listing. The price we quote is one host's rate with input near free and output at or above the going rate, not what most hosts charge, so a cost built on it can be far from what you would pay. The typical host charges about $0.966 per 1M input tokens for this model.

A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $341.05 on GLM 5.2; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, GPT-5.4 Mini, does it for $337.50. The price we quote for GLM 5.2 has changed 30 times since 2026-08-15, most recently by under 0.1% on 2026-11-11; it is now the 63rd cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. Buying from DeepInfra rather than at the price we quote lowers the token price by about 70%, for a quantized fp4 build. It is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.

• Input: $0.007 per 1M tokens
• Output: $6.80 per 1M tokens
• Batch API (in/out): Not published
• Prompt-cache read: $0.006 per 1M tokens
• Context window: 1M tokens
• Arena ELO: 1469 as of 2026-11-08

Available on

Direct API, OpenRouter

Curated by hand; check with the provider before committing.

Market position

On blended price ($4.7621 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 45% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 63rd cheapest of 113. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 26% of priced text models in the catalogue: 223rd cheapest of 303. Its Arena ELO of 1469 ranks 23rd of the 160 models that carry one, above 86% of them. With an Arena score of 1469, GLM 5.2 clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. It is 1 point under the Strong bar (Arena 1470+), within the benchmark's 20-point noise. 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 5.2 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 1M context window once costs $0.007 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 24 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: DeepInfra at $0.5625 input / $1.80 output per 1M tokens, 70% 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 $174.38 there against $341.05 at the price we quote, a difference of $166.68 a month. The dearest, Cloudflare, charges 4.0x the cheapest.

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. These listings are promotional rates, below the host's standard rate: DeepInfra's, 25% off; StreamLake's, 56% off; Novita's, 54% off; SiliconFlow's, 50% off; and AtlasCloud's, 33% off.

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.

Price history

GLM 5.2 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.462 input / $1.452 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 30 times since then, 7 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-11, was under 0.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.007 input / $6.80 output. Net of all changes, the blended price is +312.3% against 2026-08-15.

25 earlier changes are not listed.

Alternatives to GLM 5.2

3 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than GLM 5.2: Gemini 3.6 Flash undercuts it by 40%, and scores 10 Arena points higher.

• Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: Palmyra X5 (Writer) at $4.38 blended, 8% less.
• Next more expensive: Qwen3.8 2.4T A95B (Alibaba) at $4.80 blended, 1% more.

The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against GLM 5.2.

• Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic): $2.00 in / $10.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1468 (60% more expensive, 1 ELO point lower)
• Qwen3.7 Max (Alibaba): $1.475 in / $4.425 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1475 (26% cheaper, 6 ELO points higher)
• GLM 5.1 (Zhipu): $1.40 in / $4.40 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1463 (27% cheaper, 6 ELO points lower)
• Gemini 3.6 Flash (Google): $0.75 in / $3.75 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1479 (40% cheaper, 10 ELO points higher)

• Cheapest within 15 Arena points: GLM 5.3 Flash (Zhipu), 99% cheaper, 2 ELO points higher, out of 22 models in that band.
• Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba), under 1% more expensive, 16 ELO points higher, out of 8 models in that price band.

GLM 5.2 head to head

• GLM 5.2 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731
• MiniMax M3 vs GLM 5.2

Other models from Zhipu

The 8 nearest to GLM 5.2 in price, of 16 other Zhipu models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.

• GLM 4.6: $0.50 / $2.00
• 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
• GLM 5V Turbo: $1.20 / $4.00
• GLM 5.1: $1.40 / $4.40
• GLM 5.3 Prime: $2.80 / $8.80

All 17 Zhipu models and prices

Common questions about GLM 5.2 pricing

How much does GLM 5.2 cost?

GLM 5.2 costs $0.007 per 1M input tokens and $6.80 per 1M output tokens at Wafer, the host whose rate we quote. Wafer serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. The model maker, Z.AI, lists it at $1.40 per 1M input tokens and $4.40 per 1M output tokens. Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.

Which host is cheapest for GLM 5.2?

Cheapest host: DeepInfra at $0.5625 input / $1.80 output per 1M tokens, 70% 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 $174.38 there against $341.05 at the price we quote, a difference of $166.68 a month. The dearest, Cloudflare, charges 4.0x the cheapest. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.

Does GLM 5.2 offer batch or cached pricing?

Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.006 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.

What would GLM 5.2 cost per month?

With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $341 on GLM 5.2 at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.

Can GLM 5.2 be self-hosted?

Yes. GLM 5.2 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 5.2 changed?

GLM 5.2 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $0.462 input / $1.452 output per 1M tokens. The price we quote has changed 30 times since then, 7 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-11-11, was under 0.1% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.007 input / $6.80 output. Net of all changes, the blended price is +312.3% 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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