Standard Compute
Model comparison 2026

GLM 5.3 vs Kimi K2.6

GLM 5.3
Z.AI · Frontier · Open weights
$1.50/1M · 1.0M ctx
Kimi K2.6
Moonshot AI · Frontier · Open weights
$1.48/1M · 262K ctx

Community vote

Pick a winner in each dimension. You can change your vote any time.

Output Quality
Correctness and depth of what it produces
Agentic Ability
Tool calls, instruction-following, and multi-step tasks
Speed
Tokens per second and time-to-first-token
Value for money
How much capability you get per dollar
Reliability
Consistent results: fewer refusals, loops and format breaks

Specs and pricing side by side

Spec
GLM 5.3
Kimi K2.6
Maker
Z.AI
Moonshot AI
Blended price / 1M
$1.50
$1.48
Input / output
$0.08 in · $4.80 out / 1M tokens
$0.65 in · $3.41 out / 1M tokens
Context window
1.0M
262K
Open weights
Yes
Yes
Tool use
Yes
Yes
Reasoning
Yes
Yes
Output Quality
9.3
8.6
Agentic Ability
9.4
8.8
Speed
7.8
7.6
Value for money
9.0
9.2
Reliability
8.8
9.0

Pricing and capabilities synced from the OpenRouter catalogue. Scores are editorial (0–10).

Verdict: GLM 5.3 or Kimi K2.6?

Updated 2026-10-13

Choose GLM 5.3 if you want open-weight coding agents that need near-frontier agentic ability. Choose Kimi K2.6 if you want a flagship-feel open-weight generalist.

In our editorial scoring, GLM 5.3 leads in 3 of five dimensions (output quality, agentic ability and speed), while Kimi K2.6 leads in 2. On price, GLM 5.3 runs about $1.50 per 1M tokens (blended) and is open-weight; Kimi K2.6 is about $1.48 and open-weight.

Where GLM 5.3 falls short
  • Custom license with conditions for very large hosting providers
  • Reasoning cannot be turned off
Full GLM 5.3 breakdown →
Where Kimi K2.6 falls short
  • A step behind the closed flagships
  • Pricier than the cheapest open models
Full Kimi K2.6 breakdown →

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