GLM-5.3 vs Kimi K3
At 6,000 chat requests per month (1,500 in / 400 out), GLM-5.3 costs $20.74 and Kimi K3 costs $63 — roughly 3.0× the spend.
| Spec | GLM-5.3 | Kimi K3 |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Zhipu AI | Moonshot AI |
| Input / 1M tokens | $1.19 | $3 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $4.18 | $15 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.300 | $0.300 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1.0M tokens |
| Max output | — | — |
| Input modalities | text | text, image, video |
| Released | — | — |
| Cost per 1M cached reads | $0.300 | $0.300 |
Published list prices, last verified Oct 15, 2026. Source links are on each model's page.
Cost at three workloads
| Workload | GLM-5.3 | Kimi K3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer-support reply (1,500 in / 400 out) | $0.0035 | $0.011 | GLM-5.3 cheaper by $0.0070 |
| Document summary (20,000 in / 1,000 out) | $0.028 | $0.075 | GLM-5.3 cheaper by $0.047 |
| Code review pass (8,000 in / 1,500 out) | $0.016 | $0.046 | GLM-5.3 cheaper by $0.031 |
Which one fits your workload
- Long context: Kimi K3 accepts more — 1.0M versus 1M tokens. If your retrieved context regularly exceeds 1M, only one of these will hold it.
- Long answers: GLM-5.3 has the lower output price ($4.18 vs $15 per million), which matters most when answers are long.
- High-volume, short answers: GLM-5.3 is cheaper on input ($1.19 vs $3 per million).
- Caching: at least one of these vendors publishes a discounted cached-input rate; if you resend the same system prompt and context, model the cache-hit rate or you will overestimate cost.
This comparison uses published price and specification data only. It does not rank output quality — run your own evaluation on your own prompts before switching a production default.