Zhipu GLM
LLM (open)CheapOpen Chinese GLM models — design-generation champions at a rock-bottom price.
What it is
GLM from Zhipu AI (the Z.ai brand) is a family of open language models strong at code, reasoning, and especially UI generation: GLM-5.2 tops the Design Arena HTML leaderboard, beating Claude and GPT on single-page web design. The open-weight models can be self-hosted, and the cloud API costs a fraction of Western rivals. Access is via international z.ai or Chinese open.bigmodel.cn; free Flash models and a cheap Coding Plan are available.
What it can do
- GLM-5.2 — #1 on Design Arena for HTML design generation
- Open weights — deployable on your own hardware
- Strong code and reasoning modes, long context (200K+)
- Multimodal: text and image inputs
- Free Flash models for lightweight tasks
- OpenAI-compatible API — easy migration
- Cheap subscription Coding Plan for development
- Two endpoints: international (z.ai) and Chinese (bigmodel.cn)
Pricing
Free tier
Free Flash models (GLM-Flash) for all registered users
Paid from
$0.60 / 1M tokens
Similar services
| Service | How it differs |
|---|---|
| Zhipu GLM$0.60 / 1M tokens | Open Chinese GLM models — design-generation champions at a rock-bottom price. |
| DeepSeek | The other open Chinese leader — stronger at cheap reasoning. |
| Qwen | Alibaba's open models, a broad size range and strong multimodality. |
| Mistral | European open-weight alternative with EU-based hosting. |