GLM-5.3 vs DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
GLM-5.3 costs $1.40 / $4.40 and DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.30 / $1.20 per million input / output tokens. At a typical 3:1 mix, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 4.1× cheaper than GLM-5.3.
Input
$1.40
per 1M
Output
$4.40
per 1M
Cached
$0.26
1M context
Input
$0.30
per 1M
Output
$1.20
per 1M
Cached
$0.006
1M context
Side by side
✓ marks the cheaper price, larger context window, bigger discount or higher score.
| Detail | GLM-5.3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| Price per 1M tokens | ||
| Input | $1.40 | $0.30Lowest |
| Output | $4.40 | $1.20Lowest |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $2.15 | $0.52Lowest |
| Cached input | $0.26 | $0.006Lowest |
| Batch or off-peak discount | None | 50% (off-peak)Largest |
| Long prompts | Same rate at any length | Same rate at any length |
| Limits and model | ||
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Capability score Epoch AI index | 156 | 156 |
| Released | 14 Aug 2026 | 10 Sep 2026 |
| Open weights | No | No |
| Status | Current | Current |
| Checked | ||
| Price checked | 13 Oct 2026 Z.ai pricing | 6 Nov 2026 DeepSeek pricing |
Monthly cost on three workloads
List prices, no batch discount. The cached share applies where a model has a cache rate.
| Workload | GLM-5.3 | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer chat assistant50,000 conversations a month, about 2,000 tokens in and 400 out each; 50% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $171 | $39.30Lower | $132 |
| Document Q&A (RAG)20,000 questions a month over retrieved documents, 12,000 in and 600 out; 30% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $307 | $65.23Lower | $241 |
| Coding agent400 tasks a month, 40 steps each with a growing context; 85% cachedPrice this workload in the calculator | $358 | $47.18Lower | $311 |
How they differ
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper on input ($0.30 vs $1.40).
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is cheaper on output ($1.20 vs $4.40), which matters most for long answers and reasoning models.
- Cached input is cheaper on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash ($0.006 vs $0.26), which favours agents and chat apps that resend the same context.
- Both score 156 on Epoch AI’s Capabilities Index, so on general benchmarks they’re level. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is 4.1× cheaper for a similar score.
Recent changes
All changes- Z.ai added GLM-5.3 FlashX, a faster-serving GLM-5.3 Flash, at $0.37 / $1.25 per 1M tokens.
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash replaced V4 Flash at $0.30 / $1.20 peak ($0.15 / $0.60 off-peak).
Qwen3.8 Flash ($0.15 / $0.47) and GLM-5.3 Flash ($0.15 / $0.50) launched.- DeepSeek V4 Pro moved to peak and off-peak pricing: $1.32 / $3.96 at peak, down from $1.74 on input and up from $3.48 on output.
$1.74 / $3.48→ $1.32 / $3.96 - Z.ai launched GLM-5.3 at $1.40 / $4.40.
