GLM and Z.AI alternatives ranked by benchmark quality, pricing, context window, and deployment model.
GLM alternatives are usually about keeping strong open-weight economics while checking whether another provider is better for coding, reasoning, or multilingual work. BenchLM ranks non-Z.AI replacements against GLM-5.1.
BenchLM uses GLM-5.1 as the default current GLM reference.
Direct answer
DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max) is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It beats GLM-5.1 on BenchLM's general use score. It is also open-weight, so you can self-host or fine-tune it.
DeepSeek · Open Weight · 1M context
DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max) is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It beats GLM-5.1 on BenchLM's general use score. It is also open-weight, so you can self-host or fine-tune it.
BenchLM fit
85.1
Score vs ref
106%
Token cost
14% cheaper
Alibaba · Proprietary · 1M context
Qwen3.7 Max is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It beats GLM-5.1 on BenchLM's general use score. It adds a larger 1M context window than the tracked GLM / Z.AI reference.
BenchLM fit
84.6
Score vs ref
111%
Token cost
Pricing unavailable
xAI · Proprietary · 1M context
Grok 4.1 is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It beats GLM-5.1 on BenchLM's general use score. It adds a larger 1M context window than the tracked GLM / Z.AI reference.
BenchLM fit
84.3
Score vs ref
~110%
Token cost
Pricing unavailable
H Company · Proprietary · 64K context
Holo3-122B-A10B is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It beats GLM-5.1 on BenchLM's general use score. Its blended token price is about 38% lower than GLM-5.1.
BenchLM fit
84
Score vs ref
~122%
Token cost
38% cheaper
Alibaba · Open Weight · 262K context
Qwen3.6-27B is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It still posts a credible 73 score for general use work on BenchLM. Its blended token price is about 100% lower than GLM-5.1. It is also open-weight, so you can self-host or fine-tune it.
BenchLM fit
83.9
Score vs ref
89%
Token cost
100% cheaper
MiniMax · Open Weight · 1M context
MiniMax M3 is a strong GLM / Z.AI alternative. It retains about 93% of GLM-5.1's general use benchmark profile. Its blended token price is about 73% lower than GLM-5.1. It is also open-weight, so you can self-host or fine-tune it.
BenchLM fit
83.5
Score vs ref
93%
Token cost
73% cheaper
BenchLM does not treat an alternative query like a generic leaderboard. This page starts from the tracked GLM-5.1 reference, then weights benchmark quality, token cost, context window, and deployment model to find realistic replacements.
That means a model can outrank the absolute leaderboard leader here if it stays close enough on benchmarks while being materially cheaper, more open, or better matched to the workflow implied by the query.
Change the goal, use case, or minimum context if this landing page is close but not exact.
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DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max) is the current top pick on this page. It scores 87 in the selected BenchLM use-case weighting and 106% of GLM-5.1's benchmark profile, with 14% cheaper as the pricing summary.
Qwen3.6-27B is the best low-cost candidate surfaced by this page. It ranks as a serious replacement while landing at 100% cheaper than the tracked GLM-5.1 reference.
Yes. DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max) is the strongest open-weight option on this page. BenchLM surfaces it because it combines self-hostable deployment with a 87 weighted score and 1M of context.
BenchLM uses GLM-5.1 as the tracked GLM / Z.AI reference here, then scores alternatives from benchmark performance first. Token cost, context window, and open-weight preference are used to break ties and surface better real-world replacements rather than just the raw leaderboard winner.