AI model comparison

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs GLM 5.3

Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is a sparse mixture-of-experts model from DeepSeek, and the first built on the company's Causal Encoder-Decoder (CED) architecture.

Input / 1M
$0.30
Output / 1M
$1.20
Context
1.05M

GLM-5.3 is a large-scale reasoning model from Z.ai, built for complex software engineering and long-horizon agent tasks.

Input / 1M
$0.04
Output / 1M
$7
Context
1.05M

At a glance

Quick verdict

How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.

Lower price

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

3.0x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

z-ai logo

GLM 5.3

44.8 vs 39.5 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

Tie

1.05M vs 1.05M tokens

Newer release

deepseek logo

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash

Released September 10, 2026

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash39.5
z-ai logoGLM 5.344.8

Coding index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
z-ai logoGLM 5.374.8

Agentic index

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 FlashNot available
z-ai logoGLM 5.353.1

Pricing

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs GLM 5.3 API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashz-ai logoGLM 5.3
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.30$0.04
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$1.20$7
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.01$0.04
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot availableNot available

What it costs in practice

Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.

Chat message

2K in, 500 out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$1.20
z-ai logoGLM 5.3$3.58

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$13.80$4.98 cached
z-ai logoGLM 5.3$29.20$29.17 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

deepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash$47.40$3.30 cached
z-ai logoGLM 5.3$20$19.85 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashz-ai logoGLM 5.3
Context window1.05M tokens1.05M tokens
Max output944K tokens944K tokens
Input typesImage, TextText
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsMax, High, LowMax, High, Low
Default reasoning effortHighMax
Release dateSeptember 10, 2026August 18, 2026

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricdeepseek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flashz-ai logoGLM 5.3
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsSupportedSupported
JSON modeSupportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 3.0x cheaper for a typical chat. GLM 5.3 scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (44.8 vs 39.5). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or GLM 5.3 cheaper?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens, while GLM 5.3 costs $0.04 per 1M input tokens and $7 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash or GLM 5.3?

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 1.05M for GLM 5.3.

Is DeepSeek V4.1 Flash smarter than GLM 5.3?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash scores 39.5 and GLM 5.3 scores 44.8, putting GLM 5.3 ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 answer side by side and keep the better response.

deepseek logoz-ai logo

Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.