Model Comparison

Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs GLM-4.5-AirWhich is better in 2026?

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs GLM-4.5-Air — which is better?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet (by Anthropic) and GLM-4.5-Air (by Zhipu AI) are two of the AI models people compare most. Here is how they stack up on benchmarks, price and capabilities, and which one to pick in 2026.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while GLM-4.5-Air is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro). GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude 3.5 Sonnet if…

  • you want predictable pricing at $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output

Choose GLM-4.5-Air if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 2 of 2 shared benchmarks
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Jul 2025
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

2 benchmarks

Claude 3.5 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while GLM-4.5-Air is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, MMLU-Pro).

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Mon Jul 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude 3.5 Sonnet specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude 3.5 Sonnet specifies output context (200,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Mon Jul 13 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-4.5-Air does not.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

GLM-4.5-Air

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is licensed under a proprietary license, while GLM-4.5-Air uses MIT.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

GLM-4.5-Air

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3.5 Sonnet was released on 2024-06-21, while GLM-4.5-Air was released on 2025-07-28.

GLM-4.5-Air is 13 months newer than Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet

Jun 21, 2024

2.1 years ago

GLM-4.5-Air

Jul 28, 2025

11 months ago

1.1yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue discussion→

Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Zhipu AI
Has open weights
Higher GPQA score (75.0% vs 59.4%)
Higher MMLU-Pro score (81.4% vs 76.1%)
AnthropicClaude 3.5 Sonnet
Zhipu AIGLM-4.5-Air
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GLM-4.5-Air side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude 3.5 Sonnet
✓ Preferred
GLM-4.5-Air
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude 3.5 Sonnet
Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3.5 Sonnet vs GLM-4.5-Air.

Which is better, Claude 3.5 Sonnet or GLM-4.5-Air?

GLM-4.5-Air significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude 3.5 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and GLM-4.5-Air is made by Zhipu AI. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.

How does Claude 3.5 Sonnet compare to GLM-4.5-Air in benchmarks?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet scores GSM8k: 96.4%, BIG-Bench Hard: 93.1%, HumanEval: 92.0%, MGSM: 91.6%, MMLU: 90.4%. GLM-4.5-Air scores MATH-500: 98.1%, AIME 2024: 89.4%, MMLU-Pro: 81.4%, TAU-bench Retail: 77.9%, BFCL-v3: 76.4%.

What are the context window sizes for Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GLM-4.5-Air?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and GLM-4.5-Air supports an unknown number of tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GLM-4.5-Air?

Key differences include multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GLM-4.5-Air?

Claude 3.5 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and GLM-4.5-Air is developed by Zhipu AI.

Related comparisons