Skip to main content
Watch: I Built an AI App Without Leaving Databricks

Model comparison - Open weights vs closed

GLM-5.3 vs GPT-6.1 Sol

GLM-5.3 is from Z.ai and GPT-6.1 Sol is from OpenAI. On list price, GLM-5.3 charges 30% less than GPT-6.1 Sol for input ($1.40 vs $2 per 1M tokens), and GPT-6.1 Sol charges 2.3x GLM-5.3's output price ($10 vs $4.40 per 1M tokens). GLM-5.3 has a 1,000,000-token context window and GPT-6.1 Sol 1,050,000 tokens, and both return up to 128,000 output tokens per response. GLM-5.3 was released on August 18, 2026 and GPT-6.1 Sol on September 29, 2026. GLM-5.3 publishes open weights (GLM-5.3 license (Hugging Face license tag: other)); GPT-6.1 Sol is closed-weights.

Last verified from each provider's pricing page. All sources

Z.ai - Open

GLM-5.3
Input / 1M
$1.40
Output / 1M
$4.40
Context
1M

OpenAI - Closed

GPT-6.1 Sol
Input / 1M
$2
Output / 1M
$10
Context
1.05M

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM-5.3GPT-6.1 Sol
ProviderZ.aiOpenAI
Input / 1M tokens$1.40$2
Output / 1M tokens$4.40$10
Cache read / 1M$0.26$0.10
Cache write / 1M-$2.50
Batch input / 1M-$1
Batch output / 1M-$5
Long-context rates above-272,000 tokens
Context window1,000,0001,050,000
Max output128,000128,000
Release date
WeightsOpenClosed
LicenseGLM-5.3 license (Hugging Face license tag: other)-
API model idglm-5.3gpt-6.1-sol
AI Gateway idzai/glm-5.3openai/gpt-6.1-sol
Last verified

Prices in USD per 1M tokens at each provider's standard first-party rate. A dash means the provider does not bill that item separately or no primary page states it.

What each costs in practice

The same three workloads every model page uses, worked from each model's standard list rates. Swap in your own token counts with the math on each model's page.

WorkloadGLM-5.3GPT-6.1 Sol
One agent session1M input tokens and 100K output tokens, no caching.$1.84$3.00
A chat app10,000 requests a day at 2K input and 500 output tokens each.$50.00$1,500.00 per 30-day month$90.00$2,700.00 per 30-day month
The same session at a 90% cache hit90% of the input is read from the prompt cache. The one-time cache write premium is not included.$0.814$1.29
Show the math

GLM-5.3

  • One agent sessionInput: 1M x $1.40 = $1.40Output: 0.1M x $4.40 = $0.44
  • A chat appInput: 20M x $1.40 = $28.00Output: 5M x $4.40 = $22.00
  • The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.26 = $0.234Uncached input: 0.1M x $1.40 = $0.14Output: 0.1M x $4.40 = $0.44

GPT-6.1 Sol

  • One agent sessionInput: 1M x $2 = $2.00Output: 0.1M x $10 = $1.00
  • A chat appInput: 20M x $2 = $40.00Output: 5M x $10 = $50.00
  • The same session at a 90% cache hitCached input: 0.9M x $0.10 = $0.09Uncached input: 0.1M x $2 = $0.20Output: 0.1M x $10 = $1.00

Benchmarks under the same setting

Only boards that list both models under the same run setting appear here, one row per board and setting, with each score exactly as the board shows it. Scores on different boards use different scales and are never combined.

Board and settingGLM-5.3GPT-6.1 Sol
LMArena WebDev (Code Arena WebDev Overall)Code Arena WebDev Overall, default leaderboard view (891,922 votes, 145 models)Official leaderboard - arena.ai1621+8/-81755+13/-13

Set them up in your tools

Step-by-step guides whose official docs list GLM-5.3 or GPT-6.1 Sol by model id.

Model pages

FAQ

How do GLM-5.3 and GPT-6.1 Sol compare on price?

On list price, GLM-5.3 charges 30% less than GPT-6.1 Sol for input ($1.40 vs $2 per 1M tokens), and GPT-6.1 Sol charges 2.3x GLM-5.3's output price ($10 vs $4.40 per 1M tokens). For one agent session of 1M input and 100K output tokens with no caching, that is $1.84 on GLM-5.3 and $3.00 on GPT-6.1 Sol. Prices are each provider's first-party list rates, verified October 17, 2026 and October 17, 2026.

What are the context windows of GLM-5.3 and GPT-6.1 Sol?

GLM-5.3 has a 1,000,000-token context window and GPT-6.1 Sol 1,050,000 tokens, and both return up to 128,000 output tokens per response.

Are GLM-5.3 and GPT-6.1 Sol open weights?

GLM-5.3's weights are published at huggingface.co under the GLM-5.3 license (Hugging Face license tag: other). GPT-6.1 Sol is closed-weights and is called through OpenAI's API as gpt-6.1-sol.

More comparisons

Sources

GLM-5.3 verified from docs.z.ai; GPT-6.1 Sol verified from developers.openai.com. This page is as current as the older of the two: .

Newsletter

Get model price changes as they ship

One email per week. New model releases, price cuts and what they mean for your bill.