GLM 5 vs GLM 5.2: token pricing & cost compared (July 2026)

How GLM 5 (Z.AI) and GLM 5.2 (Z.AI) actually compare on price — input, output, and total monthly cost at the MAU you care about. Updated against live OpenRouter pricing.

Z.AI

GLM 5

Input: $0.60 / 1M tokens
Output: $1.92 / 1M tokens
Output / Input ratio: 3.2×
Context window: 202.752K

Z.AI

GLM 5.2

Input: $0.95 / 1M tokens
Output: $3.00 / 1M tokens
Output / Input ratio: 3.2×
Context window: 1,048.576K

The short answer

GLM 5 is cheaper across the board for typical workloads.

Token pricing side-by-side

GLM 5
GLM 5.2

Cost at your usage

Avg input tokens / call

Avg output tokens / call

Calls per active user / day: 5

Active days / month: 20

MAU: 1,000

GLM 5

Per call

$0.00126

Per user / mo

$0.1260

Total / mo

$126

GLM 5.2

Per call

$0.00198

Per user / mo

$0.1975

Total / mo

$198

GLM 5 is cheaper by $0.0715/user/month — a saving of $72/month at 1,000 MAU.

Total monthly bill across MAU

GLM 5
GLM 5.2

Same usage profile applied to both models; only the per-token price differs.

Run this against your real numbers

The mini-calculator above is a preview. Use the full tools to model power-user blast radius, gross margin, and 12-month spend forecasts.

Other comparisons

GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.5 GLM 5.2 vs Fable 5 GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.1 GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.4 GLM 5.2 vs Gemini 2.5 Pro GLM 5.2 vs DeepSeek V3.2

Comparing GLM 5 vs GLM 5.2 on price alone never tells the whole story — output-token weighting, context length, and your usage profile change the answer dramatically. Use the calculators below for the full picture.