Z.ai and the GLM-4.6 Model

Z.ai is a Chinese AI company quickly gaining attention with its GLM series of large language models. Its latest release, GLM-4.6, is being compared to Claude Sonnet, offering strong reasoning and coding performance at a fraction of the price.

About GLM-4.6

GLM-4.6 brings several notable improvements:

• Expanded context: 200K tokens
• Enhanced capabilities: Improved reasoning, tool use, and agentic workflows
• Competitive pricing: ~$0.6 per million input tokens, ~$2.2 per million output tokens
• Flexible deployment: Available through Z.ai's API and as an open-weight model for local hardware

This makes it significantly cheaper than Claude while offering similar functionality.

Community Reactions

User feedback splits into two distinct groups:

• Developers new to high-end models: They're impressed with GLM-4.6's capabilities and find it surprisingly effective for real coding and reasoning work. The affordability makes advanced AI accessible for the first time.

• Claude Sonnet 4.5 users: They acknowledge GLM-4.6's progress but still find it less consistent and weaker on complex real-world tasks. For them, it's solid but not Sonnet-level yet.

My Take

I've spent the last nine months working with Claude Sonnet models, from 3.5 through 4.5, so I'm used to that level of precision and reliability. Because of that, nothing in GLM-4.6 really surprised me—but that's mostly perspective.

For many developers, it's the first time a model this capable feels within reach. It doesn't redefine the frontier, but it's close and it's the first model from China that's being seriously compared to the best.

A Note on Open Weights

Unlike most closed models, GLM-4.6 is open-weight, meaning it can be downloaded and run locally. That's a big step forward.

I'm eagerly waiting for the day I can run a Sonnet-level model on my own hardware, with the same reliability and speed I get from today's hosted providers.

We're not there yet—but GLM-4.6 feels like real progress toward that future.