deepseek-v4.1-flash-value vs GLM 5.3 Flash

Practical read: GLM 5.3 Flash costs about half as much and starts answering sooner. One API key runs both.

No card required. Start with 1 million free tokens.

Side by side:

deepseek-v4.1-flash-value compared with Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash
Attribute	deepseek-v4.1-flash-value `coralbricks/deepseek-v4.1-flash-value`	GLM 5.3 Flash `z-ai/glm-5.3-flash`
Price, 1M in + out	$0.61 CoralBricks, cheapest route	$0.26 Wafer, cheapest route
Best for		Low cost and speed
Input / output, 1M	$0.01 / $0.60	$0.053 / $0.21
Cached input	$0.01/1M	$0.01266/1M to $0.079125/1M
Context window	1.05M 1,048,576 tokens	1.05M 1,048,576 tokens
First token, p50	1.7 s via CoralBricks	0.89 s via FriendliAI
AI IQ	Unrated	IQ 119 #50 on AI IQ
Provider routes	1	33 with failover
Privacy	Zero retention route	Confidential E2EE and zero retention route
Recent route uptime range	100.00%	0.00% to 100.00%
Publisher	coralbricks	Z.AI
Modes	chat	chat
More detail	Overview	Overview Pricing Providers

Price adds one million input and one million output tokens on the cheapest route. Prices and speed change: see the monthly reports and run a small eval before you choose a default.

Test both with your agent

Paste this into Claude Code, Cursor or any coding agent.

Compare deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and GLM 5.3 Flash in this project through TrustedRouter.

1. Read https://trustedrouter.com/docs/llms.txt
2. Point the OpenAI-compatible client at
   https://api.trustedrouter.com/v1 and read the key from
   TRUSTEDROUTER_API_KEY.
3. Run our eval prompts on coralbricks/deepseek-v4.1-flash-value, then on z-ai/glm-5.3-flash.
4. Show me cost, latency and quality side by side before changing the default.

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.trustedrouter.com/v1",
    api_key=os.environ["TRUSTEDROUTER_API_KEY"],
)
for model in ("coralbricks/deepseek-v4.1-flash-value", "z-ai/glm-5.3-flash"):
    response = client.chat.completions.create(
        model=model,
        messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France?"}],
    )
    print(model, response.choices[0].message.content)

for model in coralbricks/deepseek-v4.1-flash-value z-ai/glm-5.3-flash; do
  curl https://api.trustedrouter.com/v1/chat/completions \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRUSTEDROUTER_API_KEY" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d "{\"model\": \"$model\", \"messages\": [{\"role\": \"user\", \"content\": \"What is the capital of France?\"}]}"
done

Your agent will need an API key.

Questions

Which should I use, deepseek-v4.1-flash-value or Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash?

Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash has the lower published input-plus-output rate, more Credits provider routes and the lower measured p50 time to first token. Their context windows are the same size.

Is deepseek-v4.1-flash-value or Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash cheaper?

The current cheapest TrustedRouter route is $0.61135/1M for deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and $0.26375/1M for Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash. The comparison uses current catalog prices and updates as provider pricing changes.

Is deepseek-v4.1-flash-value or Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash faster?

Current measured p50 time to first token is 1718 ms for deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and 888 ms for Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash. These are routed probe measurements, not vendor-advertised speeds, and update as new samples arrive.

Can I test deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash with the same API?

Yes. Use the same OpenAI-compatible TrustedRouter base URL and API key, then change only the model id between coralbricks/deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and z-ai/glm-5.3-flash. This makes side-by-side evals possible without maintaining two provider integrations.

More comparisons

All comparisons

Try deepseek-v4.1-flash-value and GLM 5.3 Flash with one key.

TrustedRouter is useful when you know the model you want, but still need provider rollover, budget limits, usage records, and a prompt path you can verify.

No card required. Start with 1 million free tokens.