GLM pricing is the headline reason developers keep switching to Zhipu AI’s models. The flagship GLM-5.2 costs just $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output on the official API, roughly one-sixth of what GPT-5.5 charges, and the older GLM-4.7 is cheaper still. You can also use GLM free in the browser, and two of the models cost nothing at all through the API.
This guide breaks down every way you pay for GLM in 2026: the free tier, the per-token API rates for each model, and the GLM Coding Plan subscription that starts at $18 a month. We finish with a cost comparison against Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek, plus a flat-rate alternative if you would rather skip per-token math entirely. Price is only half the story, so see how GLM stacks up against the top closed models on quality too. If you are new to the family, start with what GLM is first.
The Key Takeaways
- GLM is free to use at chat.z.ai, and GLM-4.7 Flash und GLM-4.5 Flash are completely free on the API too.
- GLM-5.2 API pricing is $1.40 in / $4.40 out per million tokens, about one-sixth the cost of GPT-5.5 and a fraction of Claude Opus.
- GLM-4.7 is the budget coding pick at $0.60 in / $2.20 out per million tokens, with cached input as low as $0.11.
- The GLM Coding Plan is a flat subscription at $18 (Lite), $72 (Pro), and $160 (Max) per month, often with a 30% intro discount.
- Inside Fello AI, GLM-5.2 is bundled with Claude, GPT and Gemini for one flat $9.99 a month, with no per-token billing.
GLM Pricing at a Glance
Here is the whole GLM pricing picture in one table. The free options are genuinely free, the API rates are some of the lowest of any frontier-class model, and the Coding Plan is a flat monthly fee for heavy use.
| What you pay for | Cost |
|---|---|
| GLM chat (chat.z.ai) | Free |
| GLM-4.7 Flash / GLM-4.5 Flash API | Free |
| GLM-5.2 API | $1.40 in / $4.40 out per million tokens |
| GLM-4.7 API | $0.60 in / $2.20 out per million tokens |
| GLM Coding Plan | $18 / $72 / $160 per month |
Is GLM Free?
Yes, in more ways than most rivals. You can chat with GLM-5.2 for free at chat.z.ai with no subscription, the same way you would use a free ChatGPT account. Because every model is open-weight and MIT-licensed, you can also download the weights from Hugging Face and run them yourself at zero licensing cost.
The surprise is that the API has free models too. GLM-4.7 Flash, GLM-4.5 Flash and the vision model GLM-4.6V Flash are listed at $0 for input, cached input and output, so you can build real apps on them without paying per token. That makes GLM one of the cheapest serious models to prototype on, and it is a big part of why it lands on lists of the best open source AI models.
GLM API Pricing by Model
On the official Z.ai API, every model is billed per million tokens, split into input, cached input and output. Cached input applies when you reuse the same context, and it cuts the input rate to roughly a fifth. The full per-model rates are below, taken from Z.ai’s pricing docs.
| Model | Input / M | Cached input / M | Output / M |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLM-5.2 | $1.40 | $0.26 | $4.40 |
| GLM-5-Turbo | $1.20 | $0.24 | $4.00 |
| GLM-4.7 | $0.60 | $0.11 | $2.20 |
| GLM-4.7 Flash | Free | Free | Free |
| GLM-4.5 Air | $0.20 | $0.03 | $1.10 |
GLM-5.2 (Flagship)
GLM-5.2 is the current flagship and the model most people mean by GLM pricing. At $1.40 input and $4.40 output per million tokens, it costs about one-sixth of GPT-5.5 and well under half of Claude Opus, while posting competitive scores on independent benchmarks. Cached input drops to $0.26, so long, repeated contexts get even cheaper. Full benchmarks live in our GLM 5.2 breakdown.
GLM-5-Turbo
GLM-5-Turbo is the speed-tuned sibling at $1.20 input and $4.00 output per million tokens. It trades a little raw quality for faster responses and slightly lower cost, which makes it a good fit for high-volume or latency-sensitive apps.
GLM-4.7 (Budget Coding Pick)
GLM-4.7 is the value champion at $0.60 input and $2.20 output per million tokens, with cached input as low as $0.11. It still scores 73.8% on SWE-bench Verified, one of the best results any open model has posted, so you get serious coding for a fraction of frontier prices. It is also the default model inside the GLM Coding Plan.
GLM-4.7 Flash (Free)
GLM-4.7 Flash is completely free on the API, for input, cached input and output alike. It is a smaller, faster model aimed at local and high-volume coding, and alongside GLM-4.5 Flash it lets you ship a working product without paying per token.
GLM-4.5 Air
GLM-4.5 Air is the lightweight legacy option at $0.20 input and $1.10 output per million tokens, with cached input at just $0.03. It is the cheapest paid model in the lineup and still handles everyday chat and reasoning well.
The GLM Coding Plan: Lite, Pro, and Max
If you code all day, per-token billing gets fiddly, so Zhipu sells a flat-rate GLM Coding Plan instead. It is the subscription that went viral with developers hunting for a cheaper Claude alternative, because it bundles GLM-5.2, GLM-5-Turbo, GLM-4.7 and GLM-4.5-Air with generous prompt allowances. The three tiers, from Z.ai’s subscribe page, are below.
| Tier | Monthly | With 30% intro | Usage allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $18 | $12.60 | ~80 prompts / 5 hrs, ~400 / week |
| Pro | $72 | $50.40 | ~400 prompts / 5 hrs, ~2,000 / week |
| Max | $160 | $112 | ~1,600 prompts / 5 hrs, ~8,000 / week |
All three tiers unlock the same model lineup and run inside coding tools like Claude Code, Cline, Roo Code and 20-plus other clients. Prompts on GLM-5.2 and GLM-5-Turbo consume quota at 3x during peak hours and 2x off-peak, though a 1x off-peak promo is running through September 2026. Yearly billing knocks the prices down further, to roughly $151, $605 and $1,344 a year.
How to Cut Your GLM Bill
GLM is already cheap, but three habits push the cost lower. First, lean on cached input. Reusing the same system prompt or document context bills at the cached rate, which is roughly a fifth of the standard input price. Second, match the model to the job, since GLM-4.7 or the free Flash models handle most coding and chat without touching the flagship.
Third, watch the clock. The Coding Plan charges less quota off-peak, and the standard API is far cheaper than the US frontier labs at every hour. If your workload is bursty, a per-token plan can beat a subscription; if you code steadily all day, the flat Coding Plan usually wins.
GLM vs Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek on Cost
GLM’s whole pitch is frontier-class output without frontier prices. The table below lines up the GLM flagships against the models you probably already pay for, using standard API rates per million tokens. Only DeepSeek undercuts GLM on raw price, and it does so with a smaller feature set.
| Model | Input / M | Output / M |
|---|---|---|
| GLM-5.2 (Zhipu) | $1.40 | $4.40 |
| GLM-4.7 (Zhipu) | $0.60 | $2.20 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | $5.00 | $25.00 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | $3.00 | $15.00 |
| GPT-5.6 (Sol) | $5.00 | $30.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 | $12.00 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | $0.44 | $0.87 |
| Qwen3.7 Max | $1.25 | $3.75 |
The pattern is clear. GLM-5.2 costs less than half of Gemini 3.1 Pro on output and roughly a fifth of GPT-5.6 Sol, while GLM-4.7 sits right next to DeepSeek at the bottom of the market. For a fuller picture across every major model, see our AI pricing comparison, and for the other big open-weight value pick check Qwen pricing.
A Simpler Alternative to Per-Token Billing
Per-token math is powerful but exhausting, and most people do not want to track input versus output rates or manage a separate z.ai account. If that is you, the simpler route is a flat subscription that includes GLM alongside the other frontier models.
Inside Fello, GLM-5.2 sits next to Claude, GPT and Gemini for a single $9.99 a month. You can run the same prompt through several models at once and keep whichever answer is best, with no per-token billing, no quota juggling and no China-hosted account to set up. It is the easiest way to try GLM pricing-free before you commit to the API.
Schlussfolgerung
GLM pricing is about as friendly as it gets for a frontier-class model. The chat is free, two API models cost nothing, GLM-5.2 runs at one-sixth of GPT-5.5, and the GLM Coding Plan caps heavy use at a flat monthly fee. Only DeepSeek is cheaper, and not by much.
For most people the smart move is to start free at chat.z.ai, reach for GLM-4.7 when you need cheap coding via API, and step up to GLM-5.2 for the flagship. And if you would rather skip per-token billing entirely, run GLM alongside Claude and GPT in Fello for one flat price.
FAQ
How much does GLM cost?
GLM-5.2 costs $1.40 per million input tokens and $4.40 per million output on the official Z.ai API, about one-sixth the price of GPT-5.5. GLM-4.7 is cheaper at $0.60 / $2.20, and the chat plus two Flash models are free.
Is GLM free to use?
Yes. You can chat with GLM free at chat.z.ai, the model weights are open-source under the MIT license, and GLM-4.7 Flash and GLM-4.5 Flash are free on the API for input, cached input and output.
How much is the GLM Coding Plan?
The GLM Coding Plan has three tiers: Lite at $18, Pro at $72, and Max at $160 per month, often with a 30% introductory discount. All tiers bundle GLM-5.2, GLM-5-Turbo, GLM-4.7 and GLM-4.5-Air for use in tools like Claude Code and Cline.
Is GLM cheaper than ChatGPT and Claude?
Yes, by a wide margin. GLM-5.2 is roughly one-sixth the cost of GPT-5.5 and far below Claude Opus 4.8, while matching them on most everyday tasks. Only DeepSeek undercuts GLM on raw API price.
What is the cheapest GLM model?
GLM-4.7 Flash and GLM-4.5 Flash are free on the API. Among paid models, GLM-4.5 Air is the cheapest at $0.20 input and $1.10 output per million tokens, followed by GLM-4.7 at $0.60 / $2.20.
