GLM-5.3 (max) API Provider Benchmarking & Analysis
This analysis is intended to support you in choosing the best API provider of GLM-5.3 (max) for your use-case.
Fastest
Inco (FAST)
Nebius (FP4)
Makora
Databricks
Baseten (FAST)Output speed
Total 16 providers
Lowest Latency
Inco (FAST)Nebius (FP4)MakoraDatabricks
Together AITime to first answer token
Total 16 providers
Lowest Price
DeepInfraBaseten
WaferMakora
ZaiBlended price (per 1M tokens)
Total 16 providers
GLM-5.3 (max) is available through 16 API providers, each offering different performance characteristics and pricing. Below is a comparison of the key metrics across providers.
- For output speed, the top providers are Inco (FAST) (386.6 t/s), Nebius (FP4) (350.5 t/s), and Makora (251.4 t/s). Speed varies significantly across providers, with a 918% difference between the fastest and slowest.
- For latency, Inco (FAST) (6.11s), Nebius (FP4) (7.68s), and Makora (8.89s) offer the lowest time to first answer token.
- For pricing, DeepInfra (0.72), Baseten (0.82), and Wafer (0.86) offer the lowest blended prices per 1M tokens. Prices vary up to 2.5x across providers.
- Inco (FAST) offers the best performance with both the highest speed and lowest latency. For cost optimization, DeepInfra provides the most competitive pricing.
Highlights
Update: Default performance benchmarking workload has updated to 10k input tokens to better reflect production use cases. You can still select different workloads above.
Pricing
Pricing: Cache Hit, Input, and Output
Pricing: Blended Price
Pricing: Cache Discount
Output Speed vs. Price
Speed
Measured by Output Speed (tokens per second)
Output Speed: GLM-5.3 (max)
Latency vs. Output Speed
Latency
Measured by Time (seconds) to First Token
Time to First Answer Token
End-to-End Response Time
Seconds to output 500 tokens, calculated based on time to first token, 'thinking' time for reasoning models, and output speed
End-to-End Response Time
Key Comparison Metrics & API Features
| Zai | 1M | Open | $2.01 | 60 | 3.16 | 44.72 | 33.24 | ||
| DeepInfra | 1.05M | Open | $2.16 | 87 | 1.23 | 30.05 | 23.06 | ||
 Modular | 164k | Open | $2.05 | 47 | 12.13 | 65.28 | 42.52 | ||
 DigitalOcean | 1.05M | Open | $2.31 | 56 | 2.32 | 47.04 | 35.77 | ||
 Parasail | 1M | Open | $1.97 | 90 | 1.54 | 29.32 | 22.23 | ||
| Together AI | 1.05M | Open | $2.58 | 181 | 0.71 | 14.48 | 11.02 | ||
| Inco | 1M | Open | $4.08 | 377 | 0.93 | 7.56 | 5.30 | ||
 Novita | 1M | Open | $8.68 | 77 | 2.27 | 34.81 | 26.04 | ||
| Baseten | 1.05M | Open | $1.43 | 121 | 1.31 | 22.04 | 16.58 | ||
| Makora | 1.05M | Open | $1.90 | 251 | 0.93 | 10.88 | 7.95 | ||
| Databricks | 1M | Open | $2.01 | 210 | 0.82 | 12.74 | 9.53 | ||
 Multiverse Computing | 1M | Open | $6.82 | 103 | 0.76 | 25.09 | 19.46 | ||
 FriendliAI | 1M | Open | $2.01 | 198 | 1.16 | 13.82 | 10.12 | ||
| Wafer | 1M | Open | $2.01 | 157 | 0.87 | 16.83 | 12.77 | ||
| Baseten | 1M | Open | $2.15 | 177 | 1.55 | 15.69 | 11.31 | ||
| Nebius | 1M | Open | $8.68 | 245 | 35.22 | 45.42 | 8.16 | ||
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about GLM-5.3 (max) providers
GLM-5.3 (max) is available through 16 API providers: Zai, DeepInfra, Modular, DigitalOcean, Parasail, Together AI, Inco (FAST), Novita, Baseten, Makora, Databricks, Multiverse Computing, FriendliAI, Wafer, Baseten (FAST), and Nebius (FP4). Each provider offers different performance characteristics and pricing.
GLM-5.3 (max) is currently available through 16 API providers that we benchmark and track.
The fastest providers for GLM-5.3 (max) by output speed are Inco (FAST) (386.6 t/s), Nebius (FP4) (350.5 t/s), and Makora (251.4 t/s). Output speed measures how quickly tokens are generated after the model starts responding.
The providers with the lowest time to first answer token for GLM-5.3 (max) are Inco (FAST) (6.11s), Nebius (FP4) (7.68s), and Makora (8.89s). Lower latency means faster initial response time.
The providers with the lowest input token pricing for GLM-5.3 (max) are Multiverse Computing ($1.10 per 1M input tokens), Wafer ($1.19 per 1M input tokens), and DeepInfra ($1.20 per 1M input tokens).
The providers with the lowest output token pricing for GLM-5.3 (max) are Multiverse Computing ($3.50 per 1M output tokens), DeepInfra ($4.00 per 1M output tokens), and Zai ($4.40 per 1M output tokens).
Prices for GLM-5.3 (max) vary up to 2.5x across providers. The most affordable is DeepInfra at $0.72 per 1M tokens, while Inco (FAST) charges $1.80 per 1M tokens.
Output speed for GLM-5.3 (max) varies significantly across providers. Inco (FAST) is the fastest at 386.6 t/s, which is 10.2x faster than DigitalOcean at 38.0 t/s.
All 16 providers of GLM-5.3 (max) support JSON mode for structured output.
All 16 providers of GLM-5.3 (max) support function calling (tool use).
For GLM-5.3 (max), Inco (FAST) offers the best performance with highest speed and lowest latency. For cost optimization, DeepInfra provides the most competitive pricing.
When choosing a provider for GLM-5.3 (max), consider: output speed (for throughput-intensive tasks), latency (for interactive applications requiring quick first responses), pricing (for cost-sensitive workloads), and API features like JSON mode or function calling.
Yes, provider performance can vary over time due to infrastructure changes, load balancing, and updates. We continuously benchmark all providers and display historical performance trends in the "Over Time" charts.
For information about GLM-5.3 (max)'s intelligence, capabilities, modalities, and how it compares to other models, see the model overview page. View model overview