GLM-4.5: The Rising AI Powerhouse
Benchmarking the latest breakthrough in AI performance, capabilities, and cost-effectiveness
Web Browsing Excellence
GLM-4.5 achieves 26.4% accuracy on BrowseComp web tasks, significantly outperforming Claude-4-Opus (18.8%) and approaching o4-mini-high (28.3%). This represents a major leap in web navigation and comprehension capabilities.
Dominant Coding Performance
In head-to-head coding evaluations, GLM-4.5 achieves an impressive 53.9% win rate against Kimi K2 and dominates Qwen3-Coder with an 80.8% success rate. This positions it as a top-tier solution for software development and automation tasks.
Benchmark Rankings
GLM-4.5 ranks 3rd overall on combined agentic/reasoning/coding benchmarks, outperforming notable competitors like Grok 4 and Gemini 2.5 Pro. This balanced performance across multiple domains demonstrates its versatility as an AI solution.
Advanced Context Handling
With a 128k token context window and native tool-calling capabilities, GLM-4.5 excels at complex multi-step agentic workflows. This extended context enables deeper understanding of documents and more coherent long-form responses.
Cost-Effective Quality
Priced at just $0.88 per 1M tokens (below industry average), GLM-4.5 delivers exceptional value while maintaining high quality with an MMLU score of 0.835. This combination makes it accessible for both enterprise and individual use cases.
Hybrid Architecture
GLM-4.5 features a hybrid reasoning architecture with specialized agentic/execution tuning for coding automation. This innovative approach enables superior performance in complex reasoning tasks and practical applications.
The New Global AI Challenger
There’s a fresh player changing the dynamic of open-source artificial intelligence: GLM-4.5, released by Z.ai (formerly Zhipu). This model arrives with bold ambitions — offering astounding reasoning, coding, and “agentic” abilities, all while drastically undercutting competitors like DeepSeek on price. But what truly sets GLM-4.5 apart? And why are global developers, researchers, and enterprises taking notice?
In this article, we’ll unpack:
- What makes GLM-4.5 unique,
- Key architecture and training innovations,
- Real-world benchmarks and competitive comparisons,
- Cost and accessibility advantages,
- Industry and expert reactions,
- And what GLM-4.5 signals for the future of open-source AI.
🌟 What is GLM-4.5 and Why Does it Matter?
GLM-4.5 is the flagship next-generation large language model from Z.ai, designed to be the backbone for intelligent agent applications. Packing an eye-popping 355 billion total parameters — with 32 billion “active” at any time — it’s engineered to unify reasoning, coding, and agentic capabilities within a single open-source foundation.
📌 Highlights:
- Hybrid “thinking” mode for deep reasoning, “non-thinking” for instant answers.
- A massive 128,000-token context window for long conversations & documents.
- Native function calling and tool use for agentic workflows.
- Fully open-source release, with weights downloadable on Hugging Face and ModelScope.
- A lighter sibling, GLM-4.5-Air, with 106B parameters, ideal for lower-powered setups.
Z.ai claims GLM-4.5 outperforms every open-source model on Earth — and ranks just behind xAI’s Grok-4 and OpenAI’s “o3” on global benchmarks.
🧠 Inside the Hybrid Mind: Architecture and Breakthroughs
GLM-4.5’s Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) design means only a subset of parameters is active for any query, blending computational efficiency with formidable depth. Its dual-mode cognition adapts:
- 👉 “Thinking” mode: Multi-step reasoning for complex tasks (coding, math, scientific logic).
- 👉 “Non-thinking” mode: Immediate, efficient responses for simple queries.
Why is this valuable?
Models can toggle between deep insight and rapid answers, optimizing both cost and user experience — a must-have for applications that swing between coding agents, content generation, and fast lookup.
Technical Specs & Innovations Table
| Feature | GLM-4.5 | GLM-4.5-Air | DeepSeek R1 | Grok 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Parameters | 355B | 106B | 236B | ~320B |
| Active Parameters | 32B | 12B | 122B | N/A |
| Context Window | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens | 256,000 |
| Architecture | Mixture of Experts | MoE | MoE | Proprietary |
| Modes | Thinking/Non-thinking | Thinking/Non-thinking | Reasoning/Basic | Reasoning |
| Open Source | Yes (MIT) | Yes | Yes | No |
| Main Languages | Chinese/English | Chinese/English | Chinese/English | English |
📈 Benchmarks: Does GLM-4.5 Deliver?
GLM-4.5 isn’t just big — it’s effective. On 12 global benchmarks (including coding, reasoning, and agentic tasks), it places 3rd overall, outpacing DeepSeek and open-source rivals, and trailing only “o3” and Grok-4.
Key Benchmark Results
| Benchmark | GLM-4.5 | DeepSeek R1 | Grok 4 | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Claude 4 Opus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding: LIVECode | 72.9 | 77.0 | 81.9 | 80.1 | 63.6 |
| Reasoning: MMLU | 84.6 | 84.9 | 86.6 | 86.2 | 87.3 |
| Math: MATH 500 | 98.2 | 98.3 | 99.0 | 96.7 | 98.2 |
| Tool Use (Agentic) | 90.6% | 89.1% | 92.5% | 86% | 89.5% |
✅ Real-World Impact
- Outperforms most open-source models in real coding scenarios.
- 90.6% success in agentic tool use — industry leading.
- Handles long documents, multi-user workflows, and complex agent tasks seamlessly.
💵 Why GLM-4.5 is Reshaping the Cost Game
One of GLM-4.5’s core missions: democratize AI by slashing costs.
Token Pricing Comparison
| Model | Input (USD/million) | Output (USD/million) |
|---|---|---|
| GLM-4.5 | $0.11 | $0.28 |
| DeepSeek R1 | $0.14 | $2.19 |
| GPT-4 API | $10.00 | $30.00 |
📌 GLM-4.5 offers an 87% drop in output token cost versus DeepSeek, and is orders of magnitude cheaper than most Western APIs.
✅ Requires just eight Nvidia H20 GPUs (export-compliant in China), slashing the hardware barrier for both researchers and startups.
🕹️ Agentic Abilities: Built for the Next Generation of AI
GLM-4.5 doesn’t just chat: it’s engineered to power autonomous AI agents. Its architecture supports:
- Function Calling for native tool and API access,
- Multi-step Planning for breaking down complex tasks,
- Coding and Debugging with high accuracy on SWE-Bench,
- Long-form Context for document analysis and multi-turn conversations,
- Hybrid Reasoning for switching between depth and speed based on the query.
Infographic: GLM-4.5 Use Cases
- 🤖 Build autonomous coding assistants and chatbots
- 📄 Analyze contracts or academic papers in one shot
- 🎮 Enable agentic game development or interactive mini-games
- 🧑🔬 Power scientific simulations and research workflows
- 🚀 Rapid deployment in enterprise AI products and SaaS
📣 Expert Opinions & Community Buzz
Zhang Peng, CEO of Z.ai:
“We are setting a new benchmark with GLM-4.5, demonstrating that cutting-edge performance can be open, efficient, and affordable.”
AI Developer Community:
Users praise GLM-4.5 for being a "well-rounded model" that’s not just about flashy benchmarks but real reliability across domains. Anecdotally, even the lighter GLM-4.5-Air impresses on local hardware for hobbyists.
Industry Analysts:
Tech review sites highlight its "MIT-licensed open weights" and "global accessibility," predicting rapid adoption for startups and research teams globally.
🏁 China’s Open-Source Strategy Pays Off
GLM-4.5 didn’t emerge in a vacuum. Its launch showcases China’s rapid, state-supported rise in open LLM development.
- Over 1,500 Chinese LLMs have launched in 2025 alone, with fierce focus on hardware efficiency and export-compliant designs.
- GLM-4.5’s “open-almost-everything” release (including training framework ‘slime’) reinforces China’s reputation as both an innovator and access champion.
Open Model vs. Closed Model Table
| Aspect | GLM-4.5 | GPT-4o | Grok 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | ✅ MIT | ❌ Closed | ❌ Closed |
| Local Deploy | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Cost | Ultra Low | High | High |
| Community Dev | Encouraged | No | No |
| enterprise Ctrl | Full | Limited | Limited |
📚 Where Can You Access GLM-4.5?
GLM-4.5 is available for:
- API and local deployment,
- Download from Hugging Face (official link, MIT license),
- Integration with major agent frameworks, coding agents, and research platforms.
✨ Wrapping Up: The Open-Source AI Arms Race Has a New Leader
GLM-4.5 isn’t just a technical marvel — it’s a statement. By making powerful, efficient AI broadly available and affordable, it puts unprecedented capability in the hands of more creators, teams, and researchers worldwide.
Whether you’re a founder, developer, or tech-curious reader, the GLM-4.5 story signals that the frontier of AI innovation is no longer just in Silicon Valley — it’s everywhere.
Interested in exploring or deploying GLM-4.5? Check out Z.ai’s official GLM-4.5 page for detailed documentation, downloads, and community resources.
