Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs GLM-5 Turbo
Claude Sonnet 4.5 (2025) and GLM-5 Turbo (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Anthropic and Zhipu AI. Claude Sonnet 4.5 ships a 200k-token context window, while GLM-5 Turbo ships a 200k-token context window. On pricing, Claude Sonnet 4.5 ranges from $3 to $6/1M input tokens by tier; GLM-5 Turbo costs $1.20/1M input tokens. 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 safer overall; choose Claude Sonnet 4.5 when vision-heavy evaluation matters.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | Claude Sonnet 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 | $15/1M tokens | $4/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 8 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | 0 shared | 0 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 uniquely exposes Vision and Multimodal in local model data.
- Local decision data tags Claude Sonnet 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 Sonnet 4.5
$6,150
Cheapest tracked route/tier: Microsoft Foundry
GLM-5 Turbo
$1,960
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $4,190. 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 $11/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Check replacement coverage for Vision and Multimodal before moving production traffic.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Vercel AI Gateway; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 is $11/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
- Claude Sonnet 4.5 adds Vision and Multimodal in local capability data.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2025-09-29 | 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 Sonnet 4.5 | GLM-5 Turbo |
|---|---|---|
| Input price |
| $1.20/1M tokens |
| Output price |
| $4/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | Claude Sonnet 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 | No | No |
| IDE integration | No | No |
| Computer use | No | No |
| Parallel agents | No | No |
Benchmarks
No shared benchmark scores are currently available for this pair.
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Last reviewed: 2026-07-26. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.