Two of the cheapest frontier-class models on the market. One has the brains, one has the speed. We dug through the benchmarks, the price cards, and the independent tests so you don't have to.
Let's be honest — most AI work isn't glamorous coding marathons. It's answering emails, summarizing documents, light code tweaks, and powering the army of AI agents behind the scenes. For that "non-heavy coding" workload, two models are fighting for your wallet right now: Z.ai's GLM-5.3-Flash (released August 26, 2026) and DeepSeek V4 Flash (0731 refresh).
One is the newer, smarter, multimodal kid. The other is the blazing-fast, dirt-cheap veteran. Here's everything we found, fact by fact.
| Metric | GLM-5.3-Flash | DeepSeek V4 Flash (0731) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence Index (Artificial Analysis v4.1.1) | 57 | 52 | 🟦 GLM |
| Output speed | ~50 tok/s | ~119 tok/s | 🟪 DS (2.4× faster) |
| Time to first token | 1.51s | 1.21s | 🟪 DS |
| Blended price (per 1M tokens) | $0.10 | $0.23 | 🟦 GLM |
| Cached input (promo/off-peak) | $0.015 | $0.007 | 🟪 DS |
| Thinking mode | Always on (effort levels only) | True Non-Think mode | 🟪 DS |
| Vision / image / video input | ✅ Native, one model | ❌ Separate vision endpoint | 🟦 GLM |
| Max output tokens | 128K | 384K | 🟪 DS |
| Parameters | 320B total / 18B active | 284B total / 13B active | — |
| License | MIT, open weights | MIT, open weights | 🤝 Tie |
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1, GLM-5.3-Flash scores 57 versus DeepSeek's 52. GLM's GDPval-AA v2 Elo of 1773 (vs DeepSeek's 1395) is the only independently-evaluated number in the entire flash tier — and it's not close.
The Local AI Zone survey backs this up: GLM leads on HLE no-tools (50.2 vs 34.8) and DeepSWE v1.1 (63.4 vs 59.3).
But DeepSeek isn't a pushover. It leads on MMLU-Pro (86.2), LiveCodeBench (91.6), and SWE-bench Verified (79.0 vs GLM's 76.8).
Verdict: GLM is smarter on reasoning-heavy general tasks. DeepSeek holds the coding line.
This one's a blowout. DeepSeek V4 Flash outputs ~119 tokens per second — 2.4× faster than GLM's ~50 tok/s — and hits first token quicker too (1.21s vs 1.51s).
Here's the kicker for light workloads: DeepSeek has a true Non-Think mode. GLM doesn't. GLM-5.3-Flash's thinking is always on — you can only dial the depth (max/high/low effort), never turn it off. That means every "what's 2+2" pays a reasoning tax in both latency and tokens.
One Hacker News commenter summed up the GLM experience bluntly: it takes "7× the time per task relative to Gemini — cheaper, if you don't value your time." Ouch. Accurate. 😅
On the surface, GLM looks cheaper: $0.10 blended per 1M tokens vs DeepSeek's $0.23. But the official rate cards tell a subtler story:
| Item (USD/1M) | GLM promo* | GLM list | DS off-peak | DS peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh input | $0.075 | $0.15 | $0.22 | $0.44 |
| Cached input | $0.015 | $0.03 | $0.007 | $0.014 |
| Output | $0.25 | $0.50 | $0.66 | $1.32 |
*GLM's launch promotion runs through September 9, 2026 — after that, list prices apply.
A worked example (10M input, 2M output): GLM promo costs $1.25 vs DeepSeek off-peak $3.52. GLM wins that exchange decisively.
But DeepSeek's $0.007 per 1M cached-input tokens (off-peak) is the cheapest cache pricing on the market. If your pipeline re-sends the same system prompts thousands of times a day — think AI agents with fixed instructions — DeepSeek's cache economics are brutal competition. Two caveats: DeepSeek charges peak prices during 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC on weekdays, and its edge shows up mainly at list prices after GLM's promo dies.
Composio ran a 30-task independent agent benchmark on August 27, and it's the most revealing data point in this whole fight:
Translation: GLM is slightly more capable, but DeepSeek gets the same job done for half the price, twice as fast. For high-volume light work, that's the stat that pays your bill.
GLM-5.3-Flash is the first natively multimodal GLM-5 model — text, images, video, and files in one checkpoint. DeepSeek V4 Flash is text-only; vision requires a separate deepseek-v4-flash-vision-exp endpoint.
If your "non-heavy coding" includes reading screenshots, parsing documents, or analyzing UI mockups, GLM wins by default — one endpoint, one integration.
We logged three unresolved contradictions in our sources:
Also worth knowing: Z.ai's benchmark highlights are vendor-reported, and both models were previously benchmarked anonymously under codenames ("Ox Alpha" was GLM-5.3-Flash).
| If your priority is... | Pick |
|---|---|
| Fast chat & high-volume light tasks | DeepSeek V4 Flash (Non-Think + 119 tok/s) |
| Lowest cost per completed task | DeepSeek V4 Flash (~$0.028/task) |
| Cache-heavy agent pipelines | DeepSeek V4 Flash ($0.007/M cache hits) |
| Smarter answers at low volume | GLM-5.3-Flash (57 vs 52 index) |
| Images, screenshots, documents | GLM-5.3-Flash (native multimodal) |
| Long outputs before Sep 9 | GLM-5.3-Flash ($0.25/M output is 2.6× cheaper) |
Bottom line: For everyday assistant work and light coding, DeepSeek V4 Flash in Non-Think mode is the better default — it's faster, cheaper per completed task, and its advantages don't expire on September 9. Switch to GLM-5.3-Flash when you need vision, or when a genuinely hard question deserves those extra five intelligence points.
And do yourself a favor: re-run this comparison after September 9. When GLM's 50% promotion ends, the entire price ranking might flip. We'll be watching. 👀
Research compiled August 29, 2026 from Artificial Analysis, Z.ai's official launch blog, AIReiter's pricing comparison, Local AI Zone's flash-tier survey, Composio's independent agent benchmark, and community reports (HN, Reddit). All pricing in USD per 1M tokens; rate cards may have changed since publication.
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