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GLM-4.5 vs Phi-3.5 Medium

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 · Phi-3.5 Medium specs
Verdict by category
  • PriceTie

    Neither model publishes per-token API pricing.

  • Context windowTie

    Both ship a 128K-token context window.

  • 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 Phi-3.5 Medium.

  • OpennessTie

    Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

On balance GLM-4.5 edges ahead, winning 1 of 5 categories against Phi-3.5 Medium's 0. Neither model publishes per-token API pricing. Both ship a 128K-token context window.

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 Phi-3.5 Medium handles text, which can be the deciding factor before you even look at benchmarks. Both ship open weights, self-host either one.

GLM-4.5 is the newer of the two, released 11 months after Phi-3.5 Medium, 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 Phi-3.5 Medium sees more deployments in on device and edge deployment. If pricing matters more than every last benchmark point, run the numbers in the calculator below before committing.

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM-4.5Phi-3.5 Medium
ProviderOtherMicrosoft
ReleasedJul 2025Aug 2024
Modalitiestext, visiontext
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
Max output,,
Input · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Output · 1MPricing not publishedPricing not published
Knowledge cutoff,,
Open weightsYes (MIT)Yes (MIT)
API availableYesYes

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 ,
  • Heavy usage, 1M in / 500k out per day, vs ,
  • RAG workload, 5M in / 200k out per day, vs ,

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).

Price calculator

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
  • Phi-3.5 MediumPricing unavailable

Benchmarks compared

Only sourced numbers. Where a benchmark is missing for one model we show the available value rather than fabricating the other.

GLM-4.5Phi-3.5 Medium
  • MMLU,78.9
Pick GLM-4.5 if

GLM-4.5 fits when…

  • MIT license
  • Strong Chinese
  • Multimodal
  • Multimodal needs covering vision.
Pick Phi-3.5 Medium if

Phi-3.5 Medium fits when…

  • MIT license
  • 128k context
  • Strong reasoning at 14B
Don't want either?

Consider DBRX

Databricks' 132B MoE, a notable 2024 open-weight release tuned for enterprise.

See DBRX specsGLM-4.5 vs DBRXPhi-3.5 Medium vs DBRX

Frequently asked

  • Is GLM-4.5 or Phi-3.5 Medium 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?
    Both GLM-4.5 and Phi-3.5 Medium ship a 128K-token context window.
  • Is GLM-4.5 or Phi-3.5 Medium better for coding?
    Both GLM-4.5 and Phi-3.5 Medium 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?
    Both ship with open weights. GLM-4.5 is licensed under MIT; Phi-3.5 Medium under MIT.
  • When were GLM-4.5 and Phi-3.5 Medium released?
    GLM-4.5 was released by Other on 2025-07-28. Phi-3.5 Medium was released by Microsoft on 2024-08-20.
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