Cheaper overall
GLM 4.5 Air
53% lower blended rate
Higher benchmark scores
GLM 4.5 Air
leads on 7 of 9 figures
Bigger context window
GLM 4.5 Air
131,072 vs 65,536 tokens
Cheaper cached input
GLM 4.5 Air
$0.03 vs $0.11, 73% less
Where each one wins
GLM 4.5V
- Higher factual accuracy (Omniscience Accuracy) 20.8 vs 16.3
- Higher answer reliability (Omniscience Non-Hallucination) 15.2 vs 7.1
GLM 4.5 Air
- Cheaper input tokens $0.20 vs $0.60, 67% less
- Cheaper output tokens $1.10 vs $1.80, 39% less
- Cheaper cached input $0.03 vs $0.11, 73% less
- Cheaper on all four workloads
- Larger context window 131,072 tokens
- Longer maximum output 98,304 tokens
- Higher overall intelligence (Intelligence Index) 11.1 vs 7.6
- Higher graduate-level science (GPQA Diamond) 73.3 vs 68.4
- Higher expert-exam performance (Humanity's Last Exam) 7 vs 6.3
- Ahead on 4 more benchmark figures
What four workloads cost
One run, and the same run a thousand times.
GLM 4.5 Air is cheaper on all four workloads, by much the same margin each time โ about 2.5 times, from $0.0008 against $0.0015 on a chat turn to $0.0414 against $0.1152 on a long document.
| Workload | GLM 4.5V | GLM 4.5 Air | ร1,000 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat turn 1,000 in / 500 out | $0.0015 | $0.0008 | $1.50 / $0.7500 | GLM 4.5 Air is 50% cheaper |
| RAG answer 10,000 in / 800 out | $0.0074 | $0.0029 | $7.44 / $2.88 | GLM 4.5 Air is 61% cheaper |
| Agent loop 32,000 in / 700 out ร 20 calls | $0.1152 | $0.0414 | $115.20 / $41.40 | GLM 4.5 Air is 64% cheaper |
| Long document 400,000 in / 3,000 out | GLM 4.5V's context window holds 65,536 tokens, so a 400,000-token prompt does not fit. | |||
Price per 1M tokens
Neither model changes its rate with prompt length, so these rates apply to every request.
| Context band | Price | GLM 4.5V | GLM 4.5 Air | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any prompt length | Input | $0.60 | $0.20 | GLM 4.5 Air is 67% cheaper |
| Any prompt length | Cached input | $0.11 | $0.03 | GLM 4.5 Air is 73% cheaper |
| Any prompt length | Output | $1.80 | $1.10 | GLM 4.5 Air is 39% cheaper |
Blended: GLM 4.5V $0.90, GLM 4.5 Air $0.425 per 1M โ one rate at 3:1 input to output, for comparing two models at a glance.
Both priced by Z.ai. Standard tier, pay-as-you-go.
Benchmarks
They share 10 figures: GLM 4.5V leads on 2, GLM 4.5 Air on 7. The widest gap is 46.7 points, on long-context reasoning (AA-LCR).
Overall intelligence
Intelligence Index โ Overall intelligence across reasoning, knowledge & math evals
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 3.5
Graduate-level science
GPQA Diamond โ Graduate-level questions in biology, chemistry & physics
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 4.9
Expert-exam performance
Humanity's Last Exam โ Expert-level questions across many academic domains
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 0.7
Instruction following
IFBench โ Precise following of detailed instructions
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 3.4
Support-agent performance
ฯยฒ-Bench Telecom โ Tool-using agent tasks in a telecom support setting
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 24
Long-context reasoning
AA-LCR โ Long-context reasoning across large inputs
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 46.7
Command-line work
Terminal-Bench Hard โ Complex command-line and terminal workflows
GLM 4.5 Air ahead by 13.7
Physics research reasoning
CritPt โ Unpublished physics research reasoning problems
Level
Factual accuracy
Omniscience Accuracy โ Breadth of factual knowledge across domains
GLM 4.5V ahead by 4.5
Answer reliability
Omniscience Non-Hallucination โ How reliably the model avoids fabricated answers
GLM 4.5V ahead by 8.1
Each figure is that model's best published run, with the effort level named beside it โ where these scores come from.
Specifications
GLM 4.5 Air holds 65,536 more input tokens in one request. GLM 4.5V also takes image and video. Only GLM 4.5 Air lists prompt caching.
| Specification | GLM 4.5V | GLM 4.5 Air |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 65,536 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens | 98,304 tokens |
| Takes in | Text, image, video | Text |
| Puts out | Text | Text |
| Knowledge cutoff | 31 Dec 2024 | 31 Dec 2024 |
| Released | 11 Aug 2025 | 26 Jul 2025 |
| Status | Active | Active |
| Sold by | Z.ai | Z.ai |
| Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Not listed | Not listed |
| Web search | Not listed | Not listed |
| Prompt caching | Not listed | Yes |
| Code execution | Not listed | Not listed |
| Computer use | Not listed | Not listed |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
FAQs
- Is GLM 4.5V cheaper than GLM 4.5 Air?
- No โ the other way round. A 1,000-token prompt with a 500-token reply costs $0.0015 on GLM 4.5V and $0.0008 on GLM 4.5 Air, and the same model is cheaper on every workload on this page.
- How much do GLM 4.5V and GLM 4.5 Air cost per 1M tokens?
- GLM 4.5V costs $0.60 for input and $1.80 for output. GLM 4.5 Air costs $0.20 and $1.10. Standard pay-as-you-go rates, as of 11 Aug 2025.
- Which is better, GLM 4.5V or GLM 4.5 Air?
- On published benchmarks, GLM 4.5 Air. It leads on 7 of the 10 figures both models report, including overall intelligence (Intelligence Index), where it scores 11.1 against 7.6.
- Does GLM 4.5V or GLM 4.5 Air have a bigger context window?
- GLM 4.5 Air, at 131,072 tokens against 65,536. That is 65,536 more input tokens in a single request.