Understanding Z.AI (Zhipu AI) API Pricing
Z.AI (Zhipu AI) offers a wide range of powerful language models, including the frontier GLM-5 series. Their pricing is competitive, often featuring low costs for cached inputs and even completely free tiers for certain models. This helps developers build scalable AI applications while keeping costs predictable.
Key Takeaways
- ●GLM-5 is the flagship model with state-of-the-art reasoning at $1.00/M tokens.
- ●GLM-4.7 & GLM-4.5 series offer balanced performance at just $0.60/M tokens.
- ●Free Tier: GLM-4.7-Flash and GLM-4.5-Flash are completely free for all users.
- ●Web Search & OCR specialized models are available for specific automation tasks.
Z.AI (GLM) Pricing Overview
| Model | Input Price ($/1M) | Output Price ($/1M) | Cached Input ($/1M) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Models | |||
| GLM-5 | $1.00 | $3.20 | $0.20 |
| GLM-5-Turbo | $1.20 | $4.00 | $0.24 |
| GLM-5-Code | $1.20 | $5.00 | $0.30 |
| GLM-4.7 | $0.60 | $2.20 | $0.11 |
| GLM-4.7-FlashX | $0.07 | $0.40 | $0.01 |
| GLM-4.6 | $0.60 | $2.20 | $0.11 |
| GLM-4.5 | $0.60 | $2.20 | $0.11 |
| GLM-4.5-X | $2.20 | $8.90 | $0.45 |
| GLM-4.5-Air | $0.20 | $1.10 | $0.03 |
| GLM-4.5-AirX | $1.10 | $4.50 | $0.22 |
| GLM-4-32B-0414-128K | $0.10 | $0.10 | — |
| GLM-4.7-Flash | Free | Free | — |
| GLM-4.5-Flash | Free | Free | — |
| Vision Models | |||
| GLM-4.6V | $0.30 | $0.90 | $0.05 |
| GLM-OCR | $0.03 | $0.03 | — |
| GLM-4.6V-FlashX | $0.04 | $0.40 | $0.004 |
| GLM-4.5V | $0.60 | $1.80 | $0.11 |
| GLM-4.6V-Flash | Free | Free | — |
GLM-5: Flagship Intelligence
GLM-5 is Z.AI's most advanced large language model, designed for complex reasoning, multi-turn dialogue, and code generation. At $1.00 per million input tokens, it competes with other flagship models in performance while maintaining price efficiency.
GLM-5-Code: Optimized for Developers
Specifically tuned for programming tasks, GLM-5-Code offers superior performance in generating, debugging, and explaining code. It features a $1.20 per million input token price, making it a high-value tool for software engineering automation.
Free Access Tier
Zhipu AI provides free access to several models including GLM-4.7-Flash and GLM-4.5-Flash. These free models are perfect for prototype development and high-volume, low-complexity tasks.
Z.AI API Pricing FAQs
Got questions? We've got answers. Here are the most common questions we get from potential clients.