Model vs model
Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3
Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 are both in llmwise. What each gets on every plan, what it reads, how it's served and what happens when its provider fails, from the catalog and the code that runs them.
Model prices and specs checked against OpenRouter's Claude Sonnet 5 page, OpenRouter's GLM 5.3 page. Updated .
Short answer
GLM 5.3 gets twice as many messages: up to 250 messages a month on Pro, against up to 125 messages a month for Claude Sonnet 5. Otherwise, only Claude Sonnet 5 reads images and only Claude Sonnet 5 reads a PDF as the whole file. In our test runs, Claude Sonnet 5 passed 46 of the 50 prompts both answered and GLM 5.3 48; 4 prompts split them, most on summarization (3 to 4).
Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3, prompt by prompt
Every prompt Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 both answered, compared directly, their biggest differences first. One run each, through OpenRouter: a wait depends on the provider and the load that day, so a lead under 10% counts as close.
Of the 50 prompts both answered, both passed 45, only Claude Sonnet 5 passed 1, only GLM 5.3 passed 3, and neither passed 1. Claude Sonnet 5 answered sooner on 1 of the 50 and GLM 5.3 on 47; the rest were within 10% of each other. The 50 replies cost $0.2030 on Claude Sonnet 5 and $0.0364 on GLM 5.3: 5.6× less on GLM 5.3.
The 4 prompts only one of Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 passed
Announce a second bakery shop on LinkedIn (writing): GLM 5.3 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 3.5 of 5 on average (lowest 3). GLM 5.3: Graded 4.3 of 5 on average (lowest 4).
Argue both sides of free buses (writing): Claude Sonnet 5 passed and GLM 5.3 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 4.0 of 5 on average (lowest 4). GLM 5.3: Graded 3.7 of 5 on average (lowest 3); but a paragraph of 92 words, over the 90 allowed.
An email thread in one sentence (summarization): GLM 5.3 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5: Graded 5.0 of 5 on average (lowest 5); but 32 words, over the 30 allowed. GLM 5.3: Graded 4.3 of 5 on average (lowest 3).
Correlation between ad spend and sign-ups (data analysis): GLM 5.3 passed and Claude Sonnet 5 didn't. Claude Sonnet 5: Final answer 0.99; expected 0.97. GLM 5.3: Final answer 0.97: right.
Job by job, the widest gaps first
Summarization: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 3 of 5 and GLM 5.3 4 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.5× sooner at the median, 2.7 s against 1.1 s. GLM 5.3 cost 5.1× less, $0.0140 against $0.0027 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 48% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Data analysis: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 4 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.7× sooner at the median, 5.3 s against 1.9 s. GLM 5.3 cost 3.6× less, $0.0344 against $0.0096 for the 5 replies. Their replies ran to about the same length.
Math: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 4.2× sooner at the median, 3.9 s against 0.9 s. GLM 5.3 cost 9.3× less, $0.0165 against $0.0018 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 69% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
SQL: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 1.9× sooner at the median, 2.2 s against 1.2 s. GLM 5.3 cost 9.0× less, $0.0142 against $0.0016 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 74% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Customer support: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 1.5× sooner at the median, 3.5 s against 2.3 s. GLM 5.3 cost 7.8× less, $0.0182 against $0.0023 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 62% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Coding: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.5× sooner at the median, 2.7 s against 1.1 s. GLM 5.3 cost 6.9× less, $0.0508 against $0.0073 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 76% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Writing: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 4 of 5 and GLM 5.3 4 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.5× sooner at the median, 4.5 s against 1.8 s. GLM 5.3 cost 5.9× less, $0.0171 against $0.0029 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 70% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Agents and tool use: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.2× sooner at the median, 2.0 s against 0.9 s. GLM 5.3 cost 5.5× less, $0.0121 against $0.0022 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 48% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
RAG and answering from documents: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 2.8× sooner at the median, 1.8 s against 0.6 s. GLM 5.3 cost 4.4× less, $0.0109 against $0.0025 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 37% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
Translation: Claude Sonnet 5 passed 5 of 5 and GLM 5.3 5 of 5. GLM 5.3 answered 1.7× sooner at the median, 2.8 s against 1.6 s. GLM 5.3 cost 4.3× less, $0.0149 against $0.0035 for the 5 replies. Claude Sonnet 5's replies ran 13% longer, in tokens of reply, thinking not counted.
All 50 prompts: who passed, who answered sooner, who cost less
| Prompt | Result | Sooner | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turn a title into a URL slug | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 5.2×took 2.3 s and 0.4 s | GLM 5.3, 2.4×cost $0.0024 and $0.0010 |
| Parse a duration like “1h 30m” | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.4×took 2.6 s and 1.1 s | GLM 5.3, 2.6×cost $0.0036 and $0.0014 |
| Merge overlapping intervals | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.2×took 2.7 s and 0.8 s | GLM 5.3, 4.2×cost $0.0034 and $0.0008 |
| Evaluate an arithmetic expression, no eval | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.4×took 16.9 s and 12.5 s | GLM 5.3, 13.3×cost $0.0226 and $0.0017 |
| Parse CSV with quoted fields | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 6.0×took 15.8 s and 2.6 s | GLM 5.3, 7.8×cost $0.0187 and $0.0024 |
| Announce a second bakery shop on LinkedIn | Only GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3, 1.6×took 4.6 s and 2.9 s | GLM 5.3, 10.0×cost $0.0037 and $0.0004 |
| Rewrite corporate jargon in plain words | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.5×took 2.7 s and 1.8 s | GLM 5.3, 11.1×cost $0.0022 and $0.0002 |
| Decline a meeting and offer two times | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.0×took 2.8 s and 1.4 s | GLM 5.3, 9.6×cost $0.0026 and $0.0003 |
| A product announcement with five rules | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 5.2×took 4.5 s and 0.8 s | GLM 5.3, 4.5×cost $0.0035 and $0.0008 |
| Argue both sides of free buses | Only Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3, 3.7×took 6.6 s and 1.8 s | GLM 5.3, 4.0×cost $0.0050 and $0.0013 |
| A discount, then sales tax | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.1×took 1.9 s and 0.9 s | GLM 5.3, 7.6×cost $0.0015 and $0.0002 |
| Pens at 3 for $4 | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 4.3×took 6.3 s and 1.5 s | GLM 5.3, 34.6×cost $0.0061 and $0.0002 |
| Compound interest over three years | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 6.3×took 3.7 s and 0.6 s | GLM 5.3, 3.8×cost $0.0021 and $0.0005 |
| Four-digit numbers whose digits sum to 9 | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.4×took 4.5 s and 1.9 s | GLM 5.3, 15.5×cost $0.0039 and $0.0003 |
| The highest of three dice is a 5 | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 4.6×took 3.9 s and 0.9 s | GLM 5.3, 4.8×cost $0.0028 and $0.0006 |
| An article in three bullets | Neither passed | Closetook 2.6 s and 2.8 s | GLM 5.3, 6.1×cost $0.0027 and $0.0004 |
| An email thread in one sentence | Only GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3, 2.3×took 2.3 s and 1.0 s | GLM 5.3, 8.2×cost $0.0019 and $0.0002 |
| Decisions and action items from a meeting | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.9×took 2.8 s and 1.5 s | GLM 5.3, 14.1×cost $0.0033 and $0.0002 |
| A quarterly memo for the CEO | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.7×took 3.0 s and 1.1 s | GLM 5.3, 3.3×cost $0.0033 and $0.0010 |
| A study with a negative result | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.3×took 2.7 s and 0.8 s | GLM 5.3, 3.4×cost $0.0028 and $0.0008 |
| The region with the most revenue | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.1×took 6.4 s and 2.1 s | GLM 5.3, 10.3×cost $0.0041 and $0.0004 |
| Average order value in August | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.0×took 3.9 s and 1.9 s | GLM 5.3, 11.1×cost $0.0041 and $0.0004 |
| Revenue change from July to August | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.8×took 5.3 s and 1.4 s | GLM 5.3, 4.0×cost $0.0062 and $0.0016 |
| A median, filtered two ways | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 5.1×took 4.9 s and 1.0 s | GLM 5.3, 3.4×cost $0.0036 and $0.0011 |
| Correlation between ad spend and sign-ups | Only GLM 5.3 | GLM 5.3, 2.5×took 13.8 s and 5.6 s | GLM 5.3, 2.7×cost $0.0165 and $0.0062 |
| A late order | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.3×took 3.5 s and 2.6 s | GLM 5.3, 9.0×cost $0.0036 and $0.0004 |
| A return inside the window | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.8×took 2.9 s and 1.6 s | GLM 5.3, 13.8×cost $0.0032 and $0.0002 |
| A frustrated customer | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.9×took 4.4 s and 2.3 s | GLM 5.3, 13.3×cost $0.0041 and $0.0003 |
| A refund request outside the window | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.8×took 3.2 s and 1.1 s | GLM 5.3, 3.4×cost $0.0031 and $0.0009 |
| A message with a planted instruction | Both passed | Claude Sonnet 5, 1.2×took 4.6 s and 5.3 s | GLM 5.3, 8.6×cost $0.0041 and $0.0005 |
| A delivery message into Spanish | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.8×took 2.7 s and 1.5 s | GLM 5.3, 12.8×cost $0.0029 and $0.0002 |
| A product description into French | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.7×took 2.5 s and 1.5 s | GLM 5.3, 9.7×cost $0.0029 and $0.0003 |
| A meeting note into German | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.7×took 2.8 s and 1.6 s | GLM 5.3, 14.5×cost $0.0027 and $0.0002 |
| Idioms into natural Japanese | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.4×took 4.1 s and 1.7 s | GLM 5.3, 2.4×cost $0.0028 and $0.0012 |
| A lease clause into Brazilian Portuguese | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.2×took 3.8 s and 1.7 s | GLM 5.3, 2.2×cost $0.0036 and $0.0016 |
| Customers in one country | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.3×took 1.8 s and 0.8 s | GLM 5.3, 15.2×cost $0.0020 and $0.0001 |
| Count orders by status | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.7×took 2.0 s and 1.2 s | GLM 5.3, 15.1×cost $0.0020 and $0.0001 |
| Revenue by category | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.9×took 3.5 s and 1.2 s | GLM 5.3, 14.8×cost $0.0031 and $0.0002 |
| Every customer, even those without orders | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.2×took 2.2 s and 1.0 s | GLM 5.3, 4.2×cost $0.0030 and $0.0007 |
| Monthly revenue with a running total | Both passed | Closetook 3.0 s and 3.2 s | GLM 5.3, 10.9×cost $0.0042 and $0.0004 |
| A fact from one section | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.9×took 1.7 s and 0.9 s | GLM 5.3, 7.4×cost $0.0019 and $0.0003 |
| Core hours and start times | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 4.2×took 2.1 s and 0.5 s | GLM 5.3, 3.0×cost $0.0022 and $0.0007 |
| Two sections in one answer | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.6×took 1.8 s and 0.5 s | GLM 5.3, 4.9×cost $0.0022 and $0.0005 |
| A later amendment changes the answer | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.7×took 2.1 s and 1.3 s | GLM 5.3, 4.4×cost $0.0026 and $0.0006 |
| A question the handbook doesn't answer | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 2.8×took 1.8 s and 0.6 s | GLM 5.3, 4.1×cost $0.0019 and $0.0005 |
| Pick the tool and work out the date | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.9×took 1.7 s and 0.9 s | GLM 5.3, 8.1×cost $0.0018 and $0.0002 |
| Convert a currency | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 1.7×took 2.0 s and 1.1 s | GLM 5.3, 12.8×cost $0.0018 and $0.0001 |
| Book a meeting from a sentence | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.3×took 5.7 s and 1.7 s | GLM 5.3, 6.7×cost $0.0037 and $0.0006 |
| Search, but don't book | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 3.5×took 1.9 s and 0.5 s | GLM 5.3, 3.7×cost $0.0020 and $0.0005 |
| Two calls with a unit conversion | Both passed | GLM 5.3, 5.4×took 3.8 s and 0.7 s | GLM 5.3, 3.8×cost $0.0028 and $0.0008 |
Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3 in our test runs
Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 on the same prompts, job by job: how many replies passed their check.
Based on 100 of our test runs on , through OpenRouter with the app's own prompt and settings. Updated .
| Job | Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Coding | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Writing | 4 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
| Math | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Summarization | 3 of 5 | 4 of 5 |
| Data analysis | 4 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Customer support | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Translation | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| SQL | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| RAG and answering from documents | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| Agents and tool use | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 |
| All jobs | 46 of 50 · 1 message each · $0.0041 a reply | 48 of 50 · 1 message each · $0.0007 a reply |
The same prompts, sent to both through llmwise's own pipeline and checked the same way: five for each job. A bold count is the one that passed more. Messages: what each reply counted as on Pro. Cost: what OpenRouter charged us per reply, on average. Every prompt, and how it's scored.
Where they differed most, summarization: both replies to a prompt only one of them passed.
An everyday prompt: “An email thread in one sentence”, in full.
Claude Sonnet 5
Failed: Graded 5.0 of 5 on average (lowest 5); but 32 words, over the 30 allowed.
Brochure delivery is delayed to the 18th due to a paper shortage, but Rosa will pick them up herself using a van Idris booked, still in time for the 20th trade fair.
652 tokens in, 61 out · 2.3 s · $0.0019 · 1 message on Pro · answered by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 via Claude Platform on AWS ·
GLM 5.3
Passed: Graded 4.3 of 5 on average (lowest 3).
The brochure shipment was delayed to the 18th due to a paper shortage, so Rosa will pick them up herself, with Idris booking a van for that morning.
503 tokens in, 37 out · 1.0 s · $0.0002 · 1 message on Pro · answered by z-ai/glm-5.3 via Baidu ·
Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 on every plan
Whether the one-time free trial reaches each model, then each paid plan's messages on it.
| Plan | Price | Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | In the one-time trial of 5 messages | In the one-time trial of 5 messages |
| Pro | $20 a month | Up to 125 a month | Up to 250 a month |
| Max | $50 a month | Up to 400 a month | Up to 800 a month |
| Ultra | $100 a month | Up to 900 a month | Up to 1,800 a month |
| Studio | $200 a month | Up to 2,000 a month | Up to 4,000 a month |
Prices don't include tax, which is added where it applies and shown before you pay. A paid plan's month is one allowance shared by every model, so each monthly count is the most you get if all of it goes to that model. It renews each billing period; everyday models refill daily at 00:00 UTC. Long chats count more per reply. How pricing works.
Every limit is published. Paid plans also have a monthly fair-use limit on AI cost: Pro $7.50, Max $20, Ultra $42, Studio $85. Using every message on your plan at typical sizes stays under it; very large messages and heavy research use it faster. Every limit, explained.
What differs
Messages on Pro
GLM 5.3 gets twice as many messages: up to 250 messages a month on Pro, against up to 125 messages a month for Claude Sonnet 5.
Context window
Claude Sonnet 5 takes up to 1M tokens; GLM 5.3 up to 1.05M tokens. A chat in llmwise holds up to 200k tokens, which fits in either, so the difference shows only through each maker's own API.
Images and PDFs
GLM 5.3 doesn't read images. GLM 5.3 gets a PDF's text rather than the file itself.
On Free
Both are in the free trial.
Where messages go
Claude Sonnet 5: Sent to Anthropic directly. GLM 5.3: Served through OpenRouter, only by hosts that don't store or train on prompts. The maker's own endpoint is never asked.
Fact by fact
| Fact | Claude Sonnet 5 | GLM 5.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.05M tokens |
| Reads images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Whole file | Text only |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| API price (September 2026) | $2.00 in / $10.00 out per million tokens | $1.40 in / $4.40 out per million tokens |
| A typical message at API prices (4,000 tokens in, 700 out) | $0.0150 | $0.0087 |
| A $10 top-up adds | 100 messages | 200 messages |
| Where a message goes | Sent to Anthropic directly. | Served through OpenRouter, only by hosts that don't store or train on prompts. The maker's own endpoint is never asked. |
| If the provider fails | If Anthropic fails before the reply starts (an overload, a server error, a dropped connection), llmwise sends the same request to Claude Sonnet 5 through OpenRouter instead. | When one host is down, OpenRouter moves the request to another host that meets the same rules. |
| Anthropic's safety fallback | Doesn't apply | Doesn't apply |
Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM 5.3?
From the facts above and our test runs: the rest is how their answers suit your work, which one chat can show you.
Pick Claude Sonnet 5: it reads images; it reads a PDF as the whole file, charts and scans included.
Pick GLM 5.3: more messages for the money, up to 250 messages a month on Pro.
Each model's page, the families, and other pairs
Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.3 is one pair of models. The page below covers the whole families.
- Claude Sonnet 5: price, limits and messages on every plan
- GLM 5.3: price, limits and messages on every plan
- Claude vs GLM
- Claude Opus 5.5 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Claude Fable 5.1 vs Claude Sonnet 5
- Claude Sonnet 5 vs Claude Haiku 4.5
- GLM 5.3 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
- Kimi K3 vs GLM 5.3
- DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GLM 5.3
- Every model-vs-model page
Claude Sonnet 5 is a Claude model; GLM 5.3 is a GLM model.
Questions
Is Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM 5.3 cheaper in llmwise?
GLM 5.3 gets twice as many messages: up to 250 messages a month on Pro, against up to 125 messages a month for Claude Sonnet 5. Every paid plan's monthly allowance is shared by all models, so each count is the most you get if it all goes to that model.
Can I try Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 for free?
Yes: both are in the free trial of 5 messages.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM 5.3?
GLM 5.3: 1.05M tokens, against 1M tokens. A chat in llmwise holds up to 200k tokens, which fits in either, so the difference shows only through each maker's own API.
Can I use Claude Sonnet 5 and GLM 5.3 in the same chat?
Yes. Pick Claude Sonnet 5 for one message and GLM 5.3 for the next; the second sees the whole chat, including the first one's answer.
Which did better in your test runs, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM 5.3?
On the same 50 prompts, run on September 27, 2026, Claude Sonnet 5 passed 46 and GLM 5.3 passed 48. The table on this page has each job, and every reply is published.
Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok, Kimi, and GLM, in one chat.
See what a message costs before you send it. Free is 5 messages to try; sign in with an email link, no password or card.