Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4 vs GLM-4.5-AirWhich is better in 2026?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Verdict: Claude Sonnet 4 vs GLM-4.5-Air — which is better?

Claude Sonnet 4 (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 Sonnet 4 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Retail, Terminal-Bench), while GLM-4.5-Air is better at 1 benchmark (TAU-bench Airline). Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Choose Claude Sonnet 4 if…

  • you want the strongest raw capability — it leads on 4 of 5 shared benchmarks

Choose GLM-4.5-Air if…

  • 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

5 benchmarks

Claude Sonnet 4 outperforms in 4 benchmarks (GPQA, SWE-Bench Verified, TAU-bench Retail, Terminal-Bench), while GLM-4.5-Air is better at 1 benchmark (TAU-bench Airline).

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Tue Jul 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Only Claude Sonnet 4 specifies input context (200,000 tokens). Only Claude Sonnet 4 specifies output context (64,000 tokens).

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air
Input- tokens
Output- tokens
Tue Jul 14 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4 supports multimodal inputs, whereas GLM-4.5-Air does not.

Claude Sonnet 4 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4

Text
Images
Audio
Video

GLM-4.5-Air

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Claude Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4

Proprietary

Closed source

GLM-4.5-Air

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4 was released on 2025-05-22, while GLM-4.5-Air was released on 2025-07-28.

GLM-4.5-Air is 2 months newer than Claude Sonnet 4.

Claude Sonnet 4

May 22, 2025

1.1 years ago

GLM-4.5-Air

Jul 28, 2025

11 months ago

2mo 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
Higher GPQA score (75.4% vs 75.0%)
Higher SWE-Bench Verified score (72.7% vs 57.6%)
Higher TAU-bench Retail score (80.5% vs 77.9%)
Higher Terminal-Bench score (35.5% vs 30.0%)
Zhipu AI
Has open weights
Higher TAU-bench Airline score (60.8% vs 60.0%)
AnthropicClaude Sonnet 4
Zhipu AIGLM-4.5-Air
Compare in Playground

Detailed Comparison

Interactive Arena

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Claude Sonnet 4 and GLM-4.5-Air side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Claude Sonnet 4
✓ Preferred
GLM-4.5-Air
Open in Playground
AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4
Zhipu AI
GLM-4.5-Air

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4 vs GLM-4.5-Air.

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 4 or GLM-4.5-Air?

Claude Sonnet 4 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4 compare to GLM-4.5-Air in benchmarks?

Claude Sonnet 4 scores MMMLU: 86.5%, TAU-bench Retail: 80.5%, GPQA: 75.4%, MMMU: 74.4%, SWE-Bench Verified: 72.7%. 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 Sonnet 4 and GLM-4.5-Air?

Claude Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4 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 Sonnet 4 and GLM-4.5-Air?

Claude Sonnet 4 is developed by Anthropic and GLM-4.5-Air is developed by Zhipu AI.

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