Model Comparison
Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-4.6Which is better in 2026?
GLM-4.6 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks. GLM-4.6 is 32.9x cheaper per token.
Verdict: Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-4.6 — which is better?
Claude Opus 4 (by Anthropic) and GLM-4.6 (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 Opus 4 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified), while GLM-4.6 is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Terminal-Bench). GLM-4.6 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
On price, GLM-4.6 is roughly 32.9x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Claude Opus 4 also accepts a larger context window (200,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Choose Claude Opus 4 if…
- you process long inputs — it offers a 200,000 token context window
Choose GLM-4.6 if…
- you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 3 of 4 shared benchmarks
- cost matters — it's about 32.9x cheaper per token
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Sep 2025
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Claude Opus 4 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (SWE-Bench Verified), while GLM-4.6 is better at 3 benchmarks (AIME 2025, GPQA, Terminal-Bench).
GLM-4.6 shows notably better performance in the majority of benchmarks.
Arena Performance
Human preference votes
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Claude Opus 4 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 27.3x more expensive than GLM-4.6 ($0.55/1M tokens).
For output processing, Claude Opus 4 ($75.00/1M tokens) is 37.5x more expensive than GLM-4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Claude Opus 4 is more expensive than GLM-4.6.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Claude Opus 4 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to GLM-4.6's 131,072 tokens. GLM-4.6 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Claude Opus 4 is limited to 32,000 tokens.
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Both Claude Opus 4 and GLM-4.6 support multimodal inputs.
They are both capable of processing various types of data, offering versatility in application.
Claude Opus 4
GLM-4.6
License
Usage and distribution terms
Claude Opus 4 is licensed under a proprietary license, while GLM-4.6 uses MIT.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
MIT
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Claude Opus 4 was released on 2025-05-22, while GLM-4.6 was released on 2025-09-30.
GLM-4.6 is 4 months newer than Claude Opus 4.
May 22, 2025
1.2 years ago
Sep 30, 2025
9 months ago
4mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Claude Opus 4 is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. GLM-4.6 is available from Fireworks, DeepInfra.
Claude Opus 4
GLM-4.6
Outputs Comparison
Key Takeaways
Claude Opus 4
View detailsAnthropic
GLM-4.6
View detailsZhipu AI
Claude Opus 4GLM-4.6Detailed Comparison
Interactive Arena
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Claude Opus 4 and GLM-4.6 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
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FAQ
Common questions about Claude Opus 4 vs GLM-4.6.