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Claude 4.1 Opus vs GLM-5.1

Head-to-head comparison across 1benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Claude 4.1 Opus

52

VS

GLM-5.1

83

1 categoriesvs0 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: Claude 4.1 Opus unranked · GLM-5.1 #21

Pick GLM-5.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4.1 Opus only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Coding

Claude 4.1 Opus
74.5vs60.9

+13.6 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude 4.1 Opus

GLM-5.1

Price (per 1M tokens)

$15 / $75

$1.4 / $4.4

Speed

29 t/s

N/A

Latency (TTFT)

1.66s

N/A

Context Window

200K

203K

Quick Verdict

Pick GLM-5.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Claude 4.1 Opus only becomes the better choice if coding is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

GLM-5.1 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 83 to 52. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude 4.1 Opus is also the more expensive model on tokens at $15.00 input / $75.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.40 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens for GLM-5.1. That is roughly 17.0x on output cost alone. GLM-5.1 is the reasoning model in the pair, while Claude 4.1 Opus is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use. GLM-5.1 gives you the larger context window at 203K, compared with 200K for Claude 4.1 Opus.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (2)

Which is better, Claude 4.1 Opus or GLM-5.1?

GLM-5.1 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 83 to 52.

Which is better for coding, Claude 4.1 Opus or GLM-5.1?

Claude 4.1 Opus has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 74.5 versus 60.9. GLM-5.1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Self-host vs API cost

Estimates at 50,000 req/day · 1000 tokens/req average.

Claude 4.1 Opus
API / mo$67,500
Self-host / moN/A
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
GLM-5.1
API / mo$4,350
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even264M/day
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: May 11, 2026

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