💰 Unit Cost Winner GLM-5.3-Flash $0.12/1M in · $0.40/1M out
⚡ Latency & Speed Winner GLM-5.3-Flash 90ms TTFT · 175 tok/s
💻 Coding (SWE) Winner OpenAI o4-mini 68.1% SWE-bench · 94% HumanEval
🧠 STEM Reasoning Winner OpenAI o4-mini 81.4% GPQA · 97.8% MATH-500

Which model is better: GLM-5.3-Flash or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3-Flash is 89.1% cheaper for input tokens ($0.12 vs. $1.10 per 1M tokens) and $0.40 vs. $4.40 for output tokens (9.2x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, GLM-5.3-Flash delivers lower response latency at 90ms TTFT (590ms faster than OpenAI o4-mini) with 175 vs. 125 tok/s throughput. OpenAI o4-mini leads coding evaluations at 68.1% SWE-bench Verified vs. 52.8% for GLM-5.3-Flash and 81.4% vs. 63.5% on GPQA Diamond.
Verified daily via automated API latency tests and official documentation.

Verified Performance & Unit Economics Delta (12 Dimensions)

Daily synchronized metrics across token pricing, prompt cache economics, latency, throughput, and 5 capability benchmarks.

Metric / Dimension GLM-5.3-Flash OpenAI o4-mini Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens $0.12 $1.10 GLM-5.3-Flash is 9.2x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens $0.40 $4.40 GLM-5.3-Flash (90.9% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M $0.030 $0.275 GLM-5.3-Flash is 9.2x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M $0.12 $1.10 GLM-5.3-Flash is 9.2x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output) 262k (16k out) 205k (100k out) GLM-5.3-Flash (1.3x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency 90ms 680ms GLM-5.3-Flash (590ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput) 175 tok/s 125 tok/s GLM-5.3-Flash (+50 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding) 52.8% 68.1% OpenAI o4-mini (+15.3% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM) 63.5% 81.4% OpenAI o4-mini (+17.9% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline) 78.4% 85.6% OpenAI o4-mini (+7.2% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic) 84% 97.8% OpenAI o4-mini (+13.8% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR) 76.7 / 100 63.7 / 100 GLM-5.3-Flash (+13 pts)

Interactive Monthly Token Economics & ROI Forecaster

Model production workloads across prompt, completion, and cached context tokens, or switch models on the fly.

25.0M Tokens
500K 50M 250M 500M+
5.0M Tokens
100K 25M 75M 150M+
50% Cached
0% (Uncached) 25% 50% (Typical Agent) 95% Max

Estimated Monthly Spend

GLM-5.3-Flash $3.88

$0.12/1M in · $0.40/1M out

Prompt Cache: $0.030/1M read · $0.12/1M write

OpenAI o4-mini $39.19

$1.10/1M in · $4.40/1M out

Prompt Cache: $0.275/1M read · $1.10/1M write

Projected Monthly Cost Reduction
$35.31 / mo
(90.1% lower cost with GLM-5.3-Flash)
Open Full Matchup Analysis →
A

When to Choose GLM-5.3-Flash

Choose GLM-5.3-Flash (Zhipu AI) for sub-100ms ultra-fast inference model designed for real-time customer support, document classification, and agentic workflows — offering a 262k context window, 90ms TTFT, and $0.12/1M input pricing ($0.030/1M cached reads).

B

When to Choose OpenAI o4-mini

Choose OpenAI o4-mini (OpenAI) for automated PR review, high-volume agentic coding loops, SQL/data analysis, and visual document reasoning — offering a 204k context window, 680ms TTFT, and $1.10/1M input pricing ($0.275/1M cached reads).

Related Questions & Decision Factors

Which is cheaper: GLM-5.3-Flash or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3-Flash is cheaper at $0.12/1M input tokens ($0.40/1M output) compared to $1.10/1M input ($4.40/1M output) for OpenAI o4-mini.

Which model has lower TTFT latency and higher tok/s throughput: GLM-5.3-Flash or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3-Flash delivers faster first-token latency at 90ms TTFT (175 tok/s throughput) compared to 680ms TTFT (125 tok/s) for OpenAI o4-mini.

How do GLM-5.3-Flash and OpenAI o4-mini compare on SWE-bench coding and GPQA Diamond reasoning?

On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 52.8% versus 68.1% for OpenAI o4-mini. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 63.5% versus 81.4% for OpenAI o4-mini (and 84% vs 97.8% on MATH-500).

When should you choose GLM-5.3-Flash?

Choose GLM-5.3-Flash (Zhipu AI) for sub-100ms ultra-fast inference model designed for real-time customer support, document classification, and agentic workflows — offering a 262k context window, 90ms TTFT, and $0.12/1M input pricing ($0.030/1M cached reads).

When should you choose OpenAI o4-mini?

Choose OpenAI o4-mini (OpenAI) for automated PR review, high-volume agentic coding loops, SQL/data analysis, and visual document reasoning — offering a 204k context window, 680ms TTFT, and $1.10/1M input pricing ($0.275/1M cached reads).

Explore High-Priority Related Model Matchups