GLM-5 vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
GLM-5 (2026) and Qwen3.5-35B-A3B (2026) are frontier-tier reasoning models from Zhipu AI and Alibaba. GLM-5 ships a 200k-token context window, while Qwen3.5-35B-A3B ships a 262k-token context window. On MMLU PRO, GLM-5 leads by 0.7 pts. On pricing, Qwen3.5-35B-A3B costs $0.14/1M input tokens versus $0.60/1M 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.
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is ~332% cheaper at $0.14/1M; pay for GLM-5 only for provider fit.
Decision scorecard
Local evidence first| Signal | GLM-5 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | reasoning-heavy apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production | reasoning-heavy apps, tool-calling agents, and provider-routed production |
| Decision fit | Coding, RAG, and Agents | Coding, RAG, and Agents |
| Context window | 200k | 262k |
| Cheapest output | $2.08/1M tokens | $1/1M tokens |
| Provider routes | 7 tracked | 2 tracked |
| Shared benchmarks | MMLU PRO leader | 7 shared |
Decision tradeoffs
- GLM-5 holds a shared-benchmark lead on MMLU PRO, ahead by 0.7 points.
- GLM-5 has broader tracked provider coverage for fallback and route flexibility.
- Local decision data tags GLM-5 for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the larger context window for long prompts, retrieval packs, or transcript analysis.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the lower cheapest tracked output price at $1/1M tokens.
- Local decision data tags Qwen3.5-35B-A3B for Coding, RAG, and Agents.
Monthly cost at traffic
Estimate token spend from the cheapest tracked input and output route or tier on this page.
GLM-5
$1,000
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
$361
Cheapest tracked route/tier: OpenRouter
Estimated monthly gap: $639. Batch, cache, alternate speed tiers, and negotiated pricing are excluded from this local estimate.
Switch friction
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Novita AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is $1.08/1M tokens lower on cheapest tracked output pricing before cache, batch, or negotiated discounts.
- Provider overlap exists on OpenRouter and Novita AI; start route-level A/B tests there.
- GLM-5 is $1.08/1M tokens higher on cheapest tracked output pricing, so quality gains need to justify the spend.
Specs
| Specification | ||
|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026-02-11 | 2026-02-24 |
| Context window | 200k | 262k |
| Parameters | 744B total, 40B active | 35B |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts | Mixture of Experts |
| License | MITOSI-approved | Apache 2.0OSI-approved |
| Openness | Open source | Open source |
| Weights | Available | Available |
| Code | Unknown | Unknown |
| Commercial use | Commercial use: permitted | Commercial use: permitted |
| Knowledge cutoff | 2025-11 | - |
Pricing and availability
| Pricing attribute | GLM-5 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.60/1M tokens | $0.14/1M tokens |
| Output price | $2.08/1M tokens | $1/1M tokens |
| Providers |
Capabilities
| Capability | GLM-5 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| Vision | No | No |
| Multimodal | No | 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
| Benchmark | GLM-5 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B |
|---|---|---|
| MMLU PRO | 86.0 | 85.3 |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.8 | 69.2 |
| Google-Proof Q&A | 86.0 | 84.5 |
| LiveCodeBench | 81.9 | 74.6 |
| Humanity's Last Exam | 30.5 | 22.4 |
| SWE-rebench | 62.8 | 53.7 |
| τ-bench | 82.1 | 81.2 |
Continue comparing
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Last reviewed: 2026-06-30. Data sourced from public model cards and provider documentation.