GLM Coding Plan vs a Token Plan
Z.ai's GLM Coding Plan is the best-value way to run GLM in a coding agent. If GLM is all you use, it is hard to beat. If you also want Claude, GPT or Gemini — or no 5-hour and weekly limits — a Token Plan puts them in one pool.
Competitor details were checked against their official pages on November 4, 2026. Prices and limits change; follow the links to confirm.
What the GLM Coding Plan includes
As of November 4, 2026, Z.ai's Coding Plan overview says:
- Plans start at $18 a month (Lite), with Pro and Max for heavier use.
- Every plan has both a 5-hour and a weekly credit limit:
| Plan | Credits per 5 hours | Credits per week |
|---|---|---|
| Lite | 2,000 | 10,000 |
| Pro | 12,000 | 60,000 |
| Max | 28,000 | 140,000 |
- Credits are spent per token at multipliers Z.ai publishes, and off-peak usage costs 50% of the standard rate. Z.ai estimates Lite at 48–97M GLM-5.3 tokens a week at a 95% cache hit rate.
- The plan serves GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash only, and works with Claude Code, Cline, OpenCode and other tools Z.ai lists as supported.
How a Token Plan compares
| GLM Coding Plan | Token Plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | From $18 a month | $20, $100 or $200 a month |
| Usage | Credits per 5 hours and per week | $60, $300 or $600 a month at list price |
| Windows | 5-hour and weekly | None |
| Models | GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash | GLM-5.3, Claude, GPT, Gemini, Kimi, DeepSeek |
| Tools | The tools Z.ai supports | Any tool that takes an API key |
On a Token Plan, GLM-5.3 is billed at its list price:
| Model | Input / 1M | Cached / 1M | Output / 1M | Context | Token Plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GLM-5.3 | $0.77 | $0.143 | $2.42 | 262K | Included |
| Kimi K3 | $3 | $0.3 | $15 | 1.0M | Included |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2 | $0.1 | $10 | 1M | Included |
$60 of plan credit is roughly 210M tokens of GLM-5.3 coding-agent traffic (85% cached input, 12% fresh input, 3% output).
Which to pick
- Pick the GLM Coding Plan if GLM is the only model you need. By Z.ai's own estimate it delivers more GLM tokens per dollar than a list-price plan can, especially off-peak.
- Pick a Token Plan if you want GLM for the bulk of the work and Claude, GPT or Gemini for the hard parts, on one bill, in any tool, without 5-hour or weekly windows.
Prices on this page come from the model catalog and were current on November 12, 2026.