GLM-4.5 vs o3-mini
A complete head-to-head: pricing, context window, benchmarks, modality coverage, and openness, with a programmatic verdict synthesized from the underlying data.
Updated
GLM-4.5 specs · o3-mini specs- Priceo3-mini
o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while GLM-4.5 does not.
- Context windowo3-mini
o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
- BenchmarksTie
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores.
- ModalitiesGLM-4.5
GLM-4.5 supports 2 modalities (text, vision) vs 1 for o3-mini.
- OpennessGLM-4.5
GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT); o3-mini is API-only.
It's a genuine coin-flip between GLM-4.5 and o3-mini: 2 category wins each, with the rest tied. o3-mini publishes pricing ($4.40 / 1M output tokens) while GLM-4.5 does not. o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K, 1.6× the room for long documents and codebases.
No directly comparable public benchmarks are available for both models, check the spec sheets for individual scores. They differ in modality coverage, GLM-4.5 handles text, vision while o3-mini handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT); o3-mini is API-only.
GLM-4.5 is the newer of the two, released 6 months after o3-mini, which usually means a more recent knowledge cutoff and updated safety post-training. GLM-4.5 is usually picked for chinese llm and open source llm workloads, while o3-mini sees more deployments in reasoning and math. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.
Side-by-side specs
| Spec | GLM-4.5 | o3-mini |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Other | OpenAI |
| Released | Jul 2025 | Jan 2025 |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 200K tokens |
| Max output | , | , |
| Input · 1M | Pricing not published | $1.10 / 1M tokens |
| Output · 1M | Pricing not published | $4.40 / 1M tokens |
| Knowledge cutoff | , | 2023-10 |
| Open weights | Yes (MIT) | No |
| API available | Yes | Yes |
Pricing at scale
What you'd actually pay at typical workloads. Numbers come from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day, vs $9.90
- Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs $99.00
- RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs $191
Light usage, 100k in / 50k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates). RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day: pricing not directly comparable (one or both models are missing public per-token rates).
Estimated spend for the listed models at your usage. Numbers are derived from each model's published per-million-token rates.
- GLM-4.5Pricing unavailable
- o3-mini$0.330
Benchmarks compared
Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.
- GPQA,79.7
GLM-4.5 fits when…
- MIT license
- Strong Chinese
- Multimodal
- Self-hosting and on-prem requirements, open weights (MIT).
- Multimodal needs covering vision.
o3-mini fits when…
- Reasoning at mid-tier cost
- Fast for a thinking model
- Long-context tasks, handles 200K tokens vs 128K for GLM-4.5.
Consider DBRX
Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.
Frequently asked
Is GLM-4.5 or o3-mini cheaper?
Per-token pricing isn't published for at least one of these models, check each model's spec page for current rates.Which has the larger context window?
o3-mini accepts 200K tokens vs 128K for GLM-4.5.Is GLM-4.5 or o3-mini better for coding?
Both GLM-4.5 and o3-mini are competitive on coding benchmarks. See each model's individual spec page for HumanEval and SWE-bench scores where published. For an opinionated pick, consult our Best LLM for Coding ranking.Are either of these models open source?
GLM-4.5 ships open weights (MIT). o3-mini is API-only.When were GLM-4.5 and o3-mini released?
GLM-4.5 was released by Other on 2025-07-28. o3-mini was released by OpenAI on 2025-01-31.
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