Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B vs GLM 5
Both are code-focused models, but they're built for different jobs. Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B is Qwen's MoE model tuned for agentic coding with a 1,048,576-token context window. GLM 5 is Z.ai's newer flagship (released 2026-02-11 vs Qwen3 Coder's 2025-07-23), built for complex systems design and long-horizon agent workflows, with a 202,752-token window and reasoning mode on by default. The gap between them is price, context length, and which benchmark categories they've actually been tested against.
Spec vs spec
| Spec | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | GLM 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1.0M | 203K |
| Max output | 66K | — |
| Input modalities | text | text |
| Output modalities | text | text |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 30, 2025 | — |
| Released | Jul 23, 2025 | Feb 11, 2026 |
| Reasoning | — | optional |
Pricing
Per 1M tokens. Provider price plus the flat 3% fee — the sum is what you pay.
qwen/qwen3-coder
Input · 1M tokens
$0.220 + 3%$0.227
Output · 1M tokens
$1.80 + 3%$1.85
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
z-ai/glm-5
Input · 1M tokens
$0.600 + 3%$0.618
Output · 1M tokens
$1.92 + 3%$1.98
Cache read · 1M tokens
$0.120 + 3%$0.124
FEE — FLAT, EVERY MODEL3%
One workload, priced on both
10M input + 2M output tokens at each model's price, flat 3% fee included.
qwen/qwen3-coderCheaper
$5.97
$5.80 provider + 3%
z-ai/glm-5
$10.14
$9.84 provider + 3%
Benchmarks
Design Arena categories where both models have results. Higher Elo and lower rank win.
| Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | GLM 5 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Elo | Rank | Elo | Rank |
| Code | 1192 | #54 | 1295 | #16 |
| Data viz | 1126 | #74 | 1269 | #22 |
| Game dev | 1167 | #58 | 1299 | #15 |
| UI components | 1170 | #56 | 1287 | #21 |
| Websites | 1201 | #55 | 1290 | #18 |
Head-to-head preference voting. How we filter and rank
Pricing math
Qwen3 Coder charges $0.22/M input and $1.80/M output at provider rates; on OpenKey that's $0.2266/M and $1.854/M after the flat 3% fee (0.22 × 1.03, 1.80 × 1.03). GLM 5 runs $0.60/M input and $1.92/M output provider-side, or $0.618/M and $1.9776/M on OpenKey. GLM 5 also has a $0.12/M cache-read price that Qwen3 Coder doesn't offer.
For a 10M-input/2M-output workload, Qwen3 Coder costs $5.80 total and GLM 5 costs $9.84 — GLM 5 runs 1.7x more expensive at that mix, driven mostly by the 2.7x higher input price (input price ratio: 0.37, meaning Qwen3 Coder's input rate is 37% of GLM 5's).
Context and long-document work
Qwen3 Coder's 1,048,576-token context window is 5.17x larger than GLM 5's 202,752 tokens. If you're feeding in large codebases, long log files, or multi-document context for agentic tool use, Qwen3 Coder has more headroom before you need to chunk or summarize. GLM 5's window is still large by most standards, just not in the same class. Max completion tokens also differ: Qwen3 Coder caps at 65,536 output tokens; GLM 5's max completion tokens field isn't specified.
Benchmark coverage
The two models were scored on different Design Arena slices, which limits direct comparison. Both were tested on models-arena categories: codecategories (Qwen3 Coder 1192 elo, rank 54, 61.2% win rate vs GLM 5's 1295 elo, rank 16, 55.6% win rate), dataviz, gamedev, uicomponent, and website — GLM 5 ranks higher on all five. GLM 5 was additionally tested on agents-arena tasks (androidnative rank 6, godotgamedev rank 3, mobileapps rank 10, fullstack rank 13) that Qwen3 Coder has no scores for at all. Qwen3 Coder wasn't tested on 3D, ASCII art, or SVG categories where GLM 5 has recorded elo scores.
When to pick each
Qwen3 Coder is the pick when cost per token matters and your workload needs a very large context window — big repos, long agent traces, high-volume batch coding jobs. GLM 5 is the pick when you want reasoning mode available by default and better recorded performance on Design Arena's model and agent benchmarks, and you're willing to pay roughly 1.7x more for a typical 10M/2M-token workload. Both run on OpenKey under one API key with a flat 3% fee added to provider list pricing, so switching between them for a task is a one-line change, not a new account.
Which model for which job
| Use case | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Large codebase agentic coding | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | 1,048,576-token context is 5.17x larger than GLM 5's 202,752 |
| High-volume batch jobs on a budget | Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B | $5.80 vs $9.84 for a 10M-input/2M-output workload |
| Full-stack or mobile app agent tasks | GLM 5 | Ranked in agents-arena for fullstack (rank 13) and mobileapps (rank 10); Qwen3 Coder has no agent-arena scores |
| UI component or website generation | GLM 5 | Higher elo on uicomponent (1287 vs 1170) and website (1290 vs 1201) in models-arena |
| Repeated prompts with shared context | GLM 5 | Has a $0.12/M cache-read price; Qwen3 Coder lists no cache pricing |
| Tasks needing default reasoning mode | GLM 5 | Reasoning is default-enabled; Qwen3 Coder has no reasoning field set |
Questions
- Which model is cheaper for a typical coding workload?
- Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B, at $5.80 for a 10M-input/2M-output job versus $9.84 for GLM 5 — a difference driven mainly by input pricing, where Qwen3 Coder's $0.22/M provider rate is 37% of GLM 5's $0.60/M.
- How much bigger is Qwen3 Coder's context window?
- 5.17x. Qwen3 Coder supports 1,048,576 tokens of context versus GLM 5's 202,752 tokens, which matters for large repos or long agent sessions that would otherwise need chunking.
- Does GLM 5 outperform Qwen3 Coder on coding benchmarks?
- On the shared Design Arena codecategories test, GLM 5 scores higher (1295 elo, rank 16) than Qwen3 Coder (1192 elo, rank 54). GLM 5 also has agent-arena scores (e.g. rank 3 in godotgamedev) that Qwen3 Coder isn't tested against.
- Can I use both models through one OpenKey account?
- Yes. OpenKey provides one key across 329 models from 52 labs, including both Qwen3 Coder 480B A35B and GLM 5, with pricing set at the provider's list price plus a flat 3% fee.