Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite vs GLM-5.3: Specs & Benchmark Comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is developed by Google, while GLM-5.3 comes from Zhipu AI. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite was released in July 2026, and GLM-5.3 followed a month later in August 2026. GLM-5.3 has a published size of about 753 billion parameters; Google has not disclosed the parameter count of Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite.

We have 6 benchmark results for Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and 17 benchmark results for GLM-5.3, but they overlap on a single test: Terminal-Bench 2.1, where GLM-5.3 scores 88.0% against 54.0%.

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is the cheaper API at $0.30 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens, roughly 5 times cheaper than GLM-5.3 at $1.40 and $4.40. Both accept a context window of about 1M tokens. Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite accepts text and images as input, while GLM-5.3 accepts text.

CharacteristicGemini 3.5 Flash-LiteGLM-5.3
CompanyGoogleZhipu AI
Release DateJuly 21, 2026August 14, 2026
Parameters753B
MultimodalYesNo
Context (input)1.0M1.0M
Context (output)66K131K
Input Price / 1M$0.30$1.40
Output Price / 1M$2.50$4.40
Average Score53.2%52.2%
Benchmarks
Terminal-Bench 2.154.0%88.0%

Visual Benchmark Comparison

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
GLM-5.3
Terminal-Bench 2.10.5 vs 0.9
0.5
0.9

Verdict

Both models show equal results — the choice depends on your specific use case.

Overall Performance

Both models show comparable average scores: Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite — 0.5, GLM-5.3 — 0.5.

API Cost

Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is 2.1x cheaper: input $0.30/1M vs $1.40/1M tokens.

Context Window

Same context size: 1M tokens.

Recency

GLM-5.3 is newer: released 8/14/2026 vs 7/21/2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better for coding — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GLM-5.3?
Direct comparison on the SWE-Bench benchmark is not available. We recommend reviewing other metrics on the comparison page.
Which model is cheaper — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GLM-5.3?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite is cheaper for input: $0.30 per 1M tokens vs $1.40.
Which has a larger context window — Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GLM-5.3?
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite supports a larger context: 1,048,576 tokens vs 1,048,576.

The Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GLM-5.3 comparison is updated for 2026. Data includes benchmark results, API pricing, context window size and other specifications. For more detailed information, visit the Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite or GLM-5.3 page. See also the complete list of AI model comparisons.