Claude Opus 4.5 vs GLM-5 Turbo
Claude Opus 4.5 (2025) and GLM-5 Turbo (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and Zhipu AI. Claude Opus 4.5 ships a 200k-token context window, while GLM-5 Turbo ships a 200k-token context window. On pricing, GLM-5 Turbo costs $1.20/1M input tokens versus $5/1M for the alternative. This comparison covers specs, pricing, API access, capabilities, benchmarks, input and output token costs, and production fit for coding and agent workloads.
GLM-5 Turbo is ~317% cheaper at $1.20/1M; pay for Claude Opus 4.5 only for coding workflow support.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Opus 4.5 | GLM-5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, multimodal apps, and tool-calling agents | reasoning-heavy apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | RAG, Agents, and Long context |
| Context window | 200k | 200k |
| Cheapest output | $25/1M tokens | $4/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 6 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Opus 4.5 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Claude Opus 4.5 uniquely exposes Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Opus 4.5 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- GLM-5 Turbo has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $4/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags GLM-5 Turbo for RAG, Agents, and Long context.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
Claude Opus 4.5
$10,250
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Microsoft Foundry
GLM-5 Turbo
$1,960
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $8,290. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- GLM-5 Turbo is $21/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Opus 4.5 is $21/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Opus 4.5 adds Vision, Multimodal, and Code execution in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-11-01 | 2026-03-01 |
| Context window | 200k | 200k |
| Parameters | — | 744B total, 40B active |
| Architecture | Decoder Only | Mixture of Experts |
| License | Proprietary | MITOSI-approved |
| Openness | Proprietary | Open source |
| Weights | Not released | Unknown |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: conditional | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-12 | 2025-11 |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | Claude Opus 4.5 | GLM-5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $5/1M tokens | $1.20/1M tokens |
| Output price | $25/1M tokens | $4/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Opus 4.5 | GLM-5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | Yes | No |
| Multimodal | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| JSON / Tool use | Yes | Yes |
| Structured outputs | Yes | Yes |
| Code execution | Yes | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
Continue comparing
Popular comparisons for Claude Opus 4.5
Popular comparisons for GLM-5 Turbo
Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.