Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5.2 — Price, Context, and Capability Compared
Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4.6 costs 2.8× more per blended million tokens than GLM-5.2. GLM-5.2 has the larger context window (1,000,000 tokens). Default to GLM-5.2 unless you specifically need Claude Sonnet 4.6's edge.
Spec comparison
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GLM-5.2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (input) | $3.00/M | $1.40/M ✓ |
| Price (output) | $15.00/M | $4.40/M ✓ |
| Blended price | $6.00/M | $2.15/M ✓ |
| Context window | 300,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens ✓ |
| Max output | 64,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Modalities | text, vision | text |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | Yes |
| Released | 2026-03 | 2026-05 |
| Speed | 76 t/s | Not measured |
Cost at scale (3:1 blended)
| Tokens / month | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | GLM-5.2 | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000,000 | $6.00 | $2.15 | $3.85 (2.8×) |
| 10,000,000 | $60.00 | $21.50 | $38.50 (2.8×) |
| 100,000,000 | $600.00 | $215.00 | $385.00 (2.8×) |
Choose Claude Sonnet 4.6 if…
- ✓Best intelligence-per-dollar in the Claude lineup
- ✓Fast enough for interactive coding agents
- ✓Reliable structured output
- ✓Enterprise workloads that need Opus-adjacent quality at Sonnet pricing.
Choose GLM-5.2 if…
- ✓Open-weights coding-first flagship
- ✓1M-token context window
- ✓Beats larger frontier models on long-horizon coding
- ✓Long-horizon coding on open weights at a fraction of frontier pricing.
Run this exact matchup right now
Send the same prompt to Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GLM-5.2 side by side and see the outputs yourself.
Try Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs GLM-5.2 FreeFAQ
Is Claude Sonnet 4.6 cheaper than GLM-5.2?
GLM-5.2 is cheaper, at $2.15 per million blended tokens vs $6.00 for Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Which has the bigger context window, Claude Sonnet 4.6 or GLM-5.2?
GLM-5.2 has the larger context window: 1,000,000 tokens vs 300,000.
Can Claude Sonnet 4.6 replace GLM-5.2 for coding?
Both are viable for coding. Best intelligence-per-dollar in the Claude lineup (Claude Sonnet 4.6) vs Open-weights coding-first flagship (GLM-5.2) — pick based on which strength matters more for your workload.
Related
Claude Sonnet 4.6 pricingGLM-5.2 pricingvs Grok 4.3vs Gemini 3.1 Provs Claude Sonnet 4vs Claude Sonnet 4.5Premium model tests
Pricing verified 2026-04-06. Specs verified 2026-08-08.
