Google Gemini 3.6 Flash vs Z.ai GLM 5 Turbo
Side by side from live data: prices, limits, who serves each model and how reliably, and how they do on our chess arena.
In short
- Gemini 3.6 Flash is 1.3× cheaper at a typical mix of 3 input tokens per output token.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts longer prompts: 1M vs 203K tokens.
- Gemini 3.6 Flash is the newer model (released 2026-07-21).
| Gemini 3.6 Flash | GLM 5 Turbo | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Z.ai | |
| Released | 2026-07-21 | 2026-03-15 |
| Input / 1M | $0.75 | $1.20 |
| Output / 1M | $3.75 | $4.00 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.075 | $0.24 |
| Blended / 1M (3:1) | $1.50 | $1.90 |
| Context | 1M | 203K |
| Max output | 66K | 131K |
| Accepts | text, image, file, audio, video | text |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes |
| Providers on OpenRouter | 7 | 1 |
| Cheapest provider, output | $3.75 | $4.00 |
| Best provider uptime, 24 h | 100% | 100% |
| Chess arena rating | not playing | not playing |
| Vendor API status | Operational | — |
Cost calculator
Gemini 3.6 Flash
$101 per month$3.38 per day
GLM 5 Turbo
$132 per month$4.40 per day
Gemini 3.6 Flash saves $30.75 a month on this workload.
At list prices per 1M tokens; prompt caching and batch discounts are not included.
Compare Gemini 3.6 Flash with
Compare GLM 5 Turbo with