DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) vs Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash
Side-by-side comparison of specs, pricing, benchmark scores, and task rankings. Updated 2026-10-04.
| DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | deepseek | z-ai |
| Quality Score | 100 | 100 |
| Benchmark Score | 66.3 | 70.6 |
| Input Price | $0.11/M | $0.15/M |
| Output Price | $0.34/M | $0.50/M |
| Context Window | 1,048,576 | 1,048,576 |
| Max Output | 131,072 | 943,717 |
| Tool Calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Structured Output | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reasoning Mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vision | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audio | - | - |
| Benchmark Scores | ||
| ai_index | 65.1 | 69.0 |
The verdict
For a sample job of 1 million input tokens and 250,000 output tokens, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) costs $0.20 and GLM 5.3 Flash costs $0.28, so DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) is about 1.4 times cheaper for the same work.
Both read up to 1,048,576 tokens at once, roughly 1,573 pages of text.
Only GLM 5.3 Flash offers video input.
On our blended benchmark score GLM 5.3 Flash leads 70.6 to 66.3.
Across the 18 tasks where they differ, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) scores higher on 1 (Bulk Data Labeling), GLM 5.3 Flash on 17 (SQL Generation, Code Review, Code Refactoring and others).
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) was released in September 2026 and GLM 5.3 Flash in August 2026.
Pick DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) if you need lower cost; pick GLM 5.3 Flash if you need video input, benchmark performance or the stronger all-round task scores.
Costs use current list prices per million tokens; page counts assume about 0.75 words per token and 500 words per page.
Who wins by task?
| Task | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (batch) | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| SQL Generation | 141 | 142 |
| Code Review | 144 | 145 |
| Code Refactoring | 146 | 147 |
| Bug Fixing | 148 | 149 |
| Unit Test Generation | 131 | 132 |
| Code Documentation | 137 | 138 |
| Regex Writing | 126 | 126 |
| CI/CD Pipelines | 127 | 128 |
| Frontend Component Design | 129 | 130 |
| Data Analysis | 133 | 134 |
| CSV / Spreadsheet Cleanup | 136 | 136 |
| ETL Scripting | 137 | 137 |
| Bulk Data Labeling | 129 | 129 |
| OCR / Document Parsing | 134 | 134 |
| Table Extraction from PDFs | 134 | 134 |
| Long-Document Summarization | 148 | 149 |
| Short-Form Summarization | 127 | 127 |
| Blog Post Writing | 129 | 130 |
Scores reflect capability match + benchmark data + pricing for each task. Methodology →