Zhipu AI (GLM) API API Pricing & Free Tier 2026
Verified May 14, 2026Zhipu AI API provides GLM series LLMs (GLM-4 general-purpose, GLM-4V multimodal, CodeGeeX code, AutoGLM autonomous agents). Bearer token authentication, chat completions endpoint supports streaming and function calling.
Free tier
GLM-4-Flash is permanently free for all users. New accounts also receive ~25M tokens of paid-model credit on signup.
GLM-4-Flash is permanently free for all users. New accounts also receive ~25M tokens of paid-model credit on signup.
Per-model pricing
| Model | Context | Input $/1M | Output $/1M | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLM-4-Flash | 128K | $0.00 | $0.00 | Permanently free across all tiers |
| GLM-4-Plus | 128K | $7.00 | $7.00 | Flagship reasoning model |
| GLM-4-Air | 128K | $0.14 | $0.14 | Cost-efficient general model |
vs Global rivals
- GLM-4-Flash vs GPT-4o-mini (openai)GLM-4-Flash is free; comparable to GPT-4o-mini on Chinese tasks where mini charges per token.
- GLM-4-Air vs Claude 3 Haiku (anthropic)Similar pricing; GLM-4-Air edges Chinese, Claude 3 Haiku edges English.
Rate limits & access
Rate limit: Default RPM by paid tier; request higher in console.
Rate limits scale with paid tier. GLM-4-Flash quota independent from paid usage.
FAQ
- What is AutoGLM?
- One of China's earliest GUI agents — lets LLM actually "operate" your browser/phone (click, type, navigate), auto-completing multi-step tasks like booking flights / looking up info.
Prices in USD. Some providers (DashScope, Doubao) bill in CNY; figures shown at ~7.2 CNY/USD reference rate. Verify on the provider's official page before procurement.