GLM 5.3 Flash API pricing
Zhipu · Budget price tier · MIT · released 2026-08. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-10-22.
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 $0.15 per 1M input tokens for this model.
The price we quote for GLM 5.3 Flash has changed 18 times since 2026-08-27, most recently on 2026-10-22 when the quoted host changed (-64.4%); it is now the 23rd cheapest of 164 models in the Budget price tier. Buying from StreamLake rather than at the price we quote lowers the token price by about 18%, for a quantized fp8 build. It is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $0.0052 per 1M tokens
- Output: $0.1985 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.0052 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 1M tokens
- Arena ELO: 1475 as of 2026-10-08
Market position
On blended price ($0.1405 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 87% of models in the Budget price tier: 23rd cheapest of 164. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 93% of priced text models in the catalogue: 23rd cheapest of 308. Its Arena ELO of 1475 ranks 25th of the 156 models that carry one, tied with 5 others, above 81% of them. With an Arena score of 1475, GLM 5.3 Flash clears OptimNow's Strong and Standard working quality thresholds: Strong (Arena 1465+), used for support ticket, knowledge Q&A and marketing content; Standard (Arena 1415+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1525 on Arena scores as of 8 Oct 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
GLM 5.3 Flash 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 published size is 320B parameters. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 1M context window once costs $0.0052 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 30 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: StreamLake at $0.0435 input / $0.145 output per 1M tokens, 18% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. The dearest, Reka, charges 10.0x the cheapest.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Precision |
|---|---|---|---|
| StreamLake | $0.0435 | $0.145 | fp8 |
| OpenInference (price we quote) | $0.0052 | $0.1985 | fp4 |
| Relace (price we quote) | $0.0052 | $0.1985 | not declared |
| Wafer | $0.074 | $0.20 | nvfp4 |
| GMICloud | $0.075 | $0.25 | fp8 |
| Sail Research | $0.0784 | $0.25 | fp4 |
| Novita | $0.084 | $0.28 | fp8 |
| InferenceNet | $0.12 | $0.388 | fp4 |
| Phala | $0.1275 | $0.425 | nvfp4 |
| DigitalOcean | $0.1312 | $0.4375 | not declared |
| Makora | $0.14 | $0.47 | not declared |
| Near AI | $0.08 | $0.50 | fp8 |
| Z.AI (model maker) | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp8 |
| PrimeIntellect | $0.15 | $0.50 | not declared |
| Modal | $0.15 | $0.50 | nvfp4 |
| BaseTen | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp8 |
| Crusoe | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp4 |
| CoreWeave | $0.15 | $0.50 | nvfp4 |
| AtlasCloud | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp8 |
| Fireworks | $0.15 | $0.50 | not declared |
| Friendli | $0.15 | $0.50 | not declared |
| SiliconFlow | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp8 |
| Together | $0.15 | $0.50 | not declared |
| Parasail | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp4 |
| Venice | $0.15 | $0.50 | not declared |
| DeepInfra | $0.15 | $0.50 | fp4 |
| Morph | $0.15 | $0.65 | fp8 |
| Inceptron | $0.18 | $0.69 | fp8 |
| NextBit | $0.15 | $0.75 | fp4 |
| Reka | $0.08 | $1.60 | not declared |
List prices as published on 2026-10-22, 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: StreamLake's, 71% off; GMICloud's, 50% off; Novita's, 44% off; and Phala's, 15% 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.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $11 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $17 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $29 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $37 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $41 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $13 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $15 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $63 |
Price history
GLM 5.3 Flash entered our daily price archive on 2026-08-27; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.075 input / $0.25 output per 1M tokens that day. The price we quote has changed 18 times since then, 11 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-10-22, was -64.4% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.0052 input / $0.1985 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -28.9% against 2026-08-27.
| Date | Old price (in / out) | New price (in / out) | Blended change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-22 | $0.15 / $0.50 | $0.0052 / $0.1985 | -64.4% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-21 | $0.0471 / $0.16 | $0.15 / $0.50 | +213.2% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
| 2026-10-20 | $0.048 / $0.16 | $0.0471 / $0.16 | -0.2% |
| 2026-10-19 | $0.048 / $0.20 | $0.048 / $0.16 | -18.1% |
| 2026-10-18 | $0.15 / $0.50 | $0.048 / $0.20 | -60.9% (quoted host changed, not a repricing) |
13 earlier changes are not listed.
Alternatives to GLM 5.3 Flash
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Hy-MT2-1.8B (Tencent) at $0.1371 blended, 2% less.
- Next more expensive: Ling 3.0 Flash VL (inclusionai) at $0.144 blended, 2% more.
The nearest models in the Budget price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against GLM 5.3 Flash.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (DeepSeek): $0.30 in / $1.20 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1475 (562% more expensive, same Arena ELO)
- GLM 5.3 (Zhipu): $0.079 in / $1.40 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1478 (614% more expensive, 3 ELO points higher)
- MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi): $0.435 in / $0.87 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1480 (426% more expensive, 5 ELO points higher)
- MiMo-V2.5-Pro (Xiaomi): $0.3045 in / $0.609 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1468 (268% more expensive, 7 ELO points lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: GLM 5.3 Flash is itself the cheapest of the 32 models scoring within 15 points of its ELO.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: GLM 5.3 Flash itself has the highest score of the 6 models priced within 20% of it.
Other models from Zhipu
The 8 nearest to GLM 5.3 Flash in price, of 15 other Zhipu models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- GLM 4.7 Flash: $0.0605 / $0.40
- GLM 4.5 Air: $0.13 / $0.85
- GLM 4.6V: $0.30 / $0.90
- GLM 5.3 FlashX: $0.37 / $1.25
- GLM 5.3: $0.079 / $1.40
- GLM 4.5V: $0.60 / $1.80
- GLM 4.7: $0.54 / $1.98
- GLM 4.6: $0.55 / $2.20
All 16 Zhipu models and prices
Common questions about GLM 5.3 Flash pricing
- How much does GLM 5.3 Flash cost?
- GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.0052 per 1M input tokens and $0.1985 per 1M output tokens at OpenInference, the host whose rate we quote. OpenInference serves a quantized fp4 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. The model maker, Z.AI, lists it at $0.15 per 1M input tokens and $0.50 per 1M output tokens. Prices as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Which host is cheapest for GLM 5.3 Flash?
- Cheapest host: StreamLake at $0.0435 input / $0.145 output per 1M tokens, 18% below the price we quote on the blended price (30% input, 70% output). It serves a quantized fp8 build, which is not the same product as the full-precision model. The dearest, Reka, charges 10.0x the cheapest. Host rates as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Does GLM 5.3 Flash offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.0052 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-10-22. No batch pricing is published.
- What would GLM 5.3 Flash cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $11 on GLM 5.3 Flash at the list price quoted on 2026-10-22.
- Can GLM 5.3 Flash be self-hosted?
- Yes. GLM 5.3 Flash 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 5.3 Flash changed?
- GLM 5.3 Flash entered our daily price archive on 2026-08-27; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.075 input / $0.25 output per 1M tokens that day. The price we quote has changed 18 times since then, 11 of them a change of quoted host rather than a repricing. The latest change, on 2026-10-22, was -64.4% on the blended price (30% input, 70% output), to $0.0052 input / $0.1985 output (quoted host changed, not a repricing). Net of all changes, the blended price is -28.9% against 2026-08-27.
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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