💰 Unit Cost Winner GLM-5.3 $0.35/1M in · $1.00/1M out
⚡ Latency & Speed Winner GLM-5.3 160ms TTFT · 120 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 or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3 is 68.2% cheaper for input tokens ($0.35 vs. $1.10 per 1M tokens) and $1.00 vs. $4.40 for output tokens (3.1x cost advantage). In terms of operational performance, GLM-5.3 delivers lower response latency at 160ms TTFT (520ms faster than OpenAI o4-mini) with 120 vs. 125 tok/s throughput. OpenAI o4-mini leads coding evaluations at 68.1% SWE-bench Verified vs. 56.0% for GLM-5.3 and 81.4% vs. 67.0% 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 OpenAI o4-mini Net Delta / Advantage
Input Cost / 1M Tokens $0.35 $1.10 GLM-5.3 is 3.1x cheaper
Output Cost / 1M Tokens $1.00 $4.40 GLM-5.3 (77.3% lower)
Prompt Cache Read / 1M $0.090 $0.275 GLM-5.3 is 3.1x cheaper
Prompt Cache Write / 1M $0.35 $1.10 GLM-5.3 is 3.1x cheaper
Context Window (Max Output) 131k (16k out) 205k (100k out) OpenAI o4-mini (1.6x larger context)
Avg TTFT Response Latency 160ms 680ms GLM-5.3 (520ms faster)
Generation Speed (Throughput) 120 tok/s 125 tok/s OpenAI o4-mini (+5 tok/s faster)
SWE-bench Verified (Coding) 56% 68.1% OpenAI o4-mini (+12.1% lead)
GPQA Diamond (PhD STEM) 67% 81.4% OpenAI o4-mini (+14.4% lead)
MMLU-Pro (Multi-Discipline) 80.5% 85.6% OpenAI o4-mini (+5.1% lead)
MATH-500 (Quantitative Logic) 88% 97.8% OpenAI o4-mini (+9.8% lead)
Inference Value Score (IVR) 69.9 / 100 63.7 / 100 GLM-5.3 (+6.2 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 $10.50

$0.35/1M in · $1.00/1M out

Prompt Cache: $0.090/1M read · $0.35/1M 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
$28.69 / mo
(73.2% lower cost with GLM-5.3)
Open Full Matchup Analysis →
A

When to Choose GLM-5.3

Choose GLM-5.3 (Zhipu AI) for bilingual flagship foundation model optimized for cross-lingual reasoning, long-form structured analysis, and enterprise tool execution — offering a 131k context window, 160ms TTFT, and $0.35/1M input pricing ($0.090/1M 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 or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3 is cheaper at $0.35/1M input tokens ($1.00/1M 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 or OpenAI o4-mini?

GLM-5.3 delivers faster first-token latency at 160ms TTFT (120 tok/s throughput) compared to 680ms TTFT (125 tok/s) for OpenAI o4-mini.

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

On SWE-bench Verified software engineering, GLM-5.3 scores 56% versus 68.1% for OpenAI o4-mini. On GPQA Diamond graduate-level STEM reasoning, GLM-5.3 scores 67% versus 81.4% for OpenAI o4-mini (and 88% vs 97.8% on MATH-500).

When should you choose GLM-5.3?

Choose GLM-5.3 (Zhipu AI) for bilingual flagship foundation model optimized for cross-lingual reasoning, long-form structured analysis, and enterprise tool execution — offering a 131k context window, 160ms TTFT, and $0.35/1M input pricing ($0.090/1M 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