AI model comparison

GLM 4.5 Air vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

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

GLM-4.5-Air is the lightweight variant of our latest flagship model family, also purpose-built for agent-centric applications.

Input / 1M
$0.13
Output / 1M
$0.85
Context
131K

Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite is a lightweight reasoning model in the Gemini 2.5 family, optimized for ultra-low latency and cost efficiency.

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is scheduled to be retired on October 20, 2026. Consider Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite instead.

Input / 1M
$0.10
Output / 1M
$0.40
Context
1.05M

At a glance

Quick verdict

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

Lower price

google logo

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

1.7x cheaper for a typical chat

Higher intelligence score

z-ai logo

GLM 4.5 Air

11.1 vs 10.4 on Artificial Analysis

Larger context window

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Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite

1.05M vs 131K tokens

Newer release

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GLM 4.5 Air

Released July 25, 2025

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores

Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.

Intelligence index

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 Air11.1
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite10.4

Coding index

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 AirNot available
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash LiteNot available

Agentic index

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 AirNot available
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash LiteNot available

Pricing

GLM 4.5 Air vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite API pricing

Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.

Metricz-ai logoGLM 4.5 Airgoogle logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Input tokensPer 1M tokens$0.13$0.10
Output tokensPer 1M tokens$0.85$0.40
Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens$0.03$0.01
Cache writePer 1M tokensNot available$0.08
Web searchPer requestNot available$0.014

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

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 Air$0.69
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$0.40

Coding task

30K in, 4K out

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 Air$7.30$4.15 cached
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$4.60$1.90 cached

Long document summary

150K in, 2K out

z-ai logoGLM 4.5 Air$21.20$5.45 cached
google logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite$15.80$2.30 cached

Specs

Context window and capabilities

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

Metricz-ai logoGLM 4.5 Airgoogle logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Context window131K tokens1.05M tokens
Max output98K tokens66K tokens
Input typesTextAudio, File, Image, Text, Video
Output typesTextText
Reasoning effort levelsNot availableNot available
Default reasoning effortNot availableNot available
Release dateJuly 25, 2025July 22, 2025

Features

Supported features

API features available for each model.

Metricz-ai logoGLM 4.5 Airgoogle logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite
Tool callingSupportedSupported
Structured outputsNot supportedSupported
JSON modeNot supportedSupported
ReasoningSupportedSupported
TemperatureSupportedSupported
Stop sequencesSupportedSupported
Deterministic seedSupportedSupported
Verbosity controlNot supportedNot supported

Our take

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is 1.7x cheaper for a typical chat. GLM 4.5 Air scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (11.1 vs 10.4). Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite has the larger context window (1.05M vs 131K tokens). 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 GLM 4.5 Air or Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite cheaper?

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.40 per 1M output tokens, while GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.13 per 1M input tokens and $0.85 per 1M output tokens.

Which has a bigger context window, GLM 4.5 Air or Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite?

Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite supports up to 1.05M tokens of context, compared with 131K for GLM 4.5 Air.

Is GLM 4.5 Air smarter than Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite?

On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, GLM 4.5 Air scores 11.1 and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite scores 10.4, putting GLM 4.5 Air ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.

Can I use GLM 4.5 Air and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite at the same time?

Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see GLM 4.5 Air and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite answer side by side and keep the better response.

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Why choose? Ask both.

Send one prompt to GLM 4.5 Air and Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.