GLM-5.1 Pricing, Benchmarks & Channels
GLM-5.1 is a 2026-04-07 model from Zhipu AI (GLM) featuring a 200K context window and extended reasoning capabilities. Lowest rate on Alibaba Cloud Bailian (CN) ($0.825 in / $3.301 out per 1M tokens).
Input Price / 1M
$0.89637
Output Price / 1M
$3.58548
Cache Read / 1M
$0.19421
Context Window
200K
Generation Speed
73 TPS
Access Grade
A · CN Direct
F.A.R.E. Four-Dimension Score Breakdown
Scenario Capability Breakdown (0–100):
💻 Coding
81/100
✍️ Writing
74/100
📚 Long-Doc RAG
80/100
👁️ Vision OCR
Text-only
F.A.R.E. CAPABILITY RADAR
GLM-5.1 Multi-Platform Price Comparison (7 Verified Channels)
All prices are in USD per 1M tokens. Domestic developers can prioritize channels marked "Direct in CN" for compliant access and local billing.
| Platform / Gateway | Network Access | Input ($/1M) | Output ($/1M) | Cache Hit ($/1M) | Billing & Notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud Bailian (CN) Lowest Price | Direct in CN | $0.825 | $3.301 | $0.165 | Direct CN access · RMB billing | Visit Official → |
| Zhipu BigModel (CN) | Direct in CN | $0.8964 | $3.5855 | $0.1942 | Direct CN access · RMB billing | Visit Official → |
| SiliconFlow (CN) | Direct in CN | $0.8967 | $3.5867 | $0.1943 | Direct CN access · RMB billing | Visit Official → |
| DeepInfra | Global Network | $1.05 | $3.5 | $0.205 | Global cloud billing | Visit Official → |
| 302.AI Gateway | Direct in CN | $1.4 | $4.4 | $0.26 | Direct CN access · RMB billing | Visit Official → |
| OpenRouter | Direct in CN | $1.4 | $4.4 | $0.26 | Direct CN access · RMB billing | Visit Official → |
| Together AI | Global Network | $1.4 | $4.4 | $0.26 | Global cloud billing | Visit Official → |
✅ Core Strengths & Ideal Workloads
- Top-tier empirical capability score (80 index)
- Direct access in mainland China with RMB enterprise billing
- Open weights available for private self-hosting (~74GB VRAM at INT4)
⚠️ Limitations & Practical Caveats
- Direct access via Zhipu BigModel platform with dedicated Coding Plans and open-weight GLM variants.
- Extended thinking generates internal reasoning tokens (~1.8x output multiplier)