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Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM-5.1

Head-to-head comparison across 3benchmark categories. Overall scores shown here use BenchLM's provisional ranking lane.

Claude Sonnet 5

94

VS

GLM-5.1

74

3 categoriesvs0 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: Claude Sonnet 5 unranked · GLM-5.1 #30

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GLM-5.1 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Agentic

Claude Sonnet 5
81.8vs65.3

+16.5 difference

Coding

Claude Sonnet 5
63.2vs60.9

+2.3 difference

Knowledge

Claude Sonnet 5
57.4vs52.3

+5.1 difference

Operational Comparison

Claude Sonnet 5

GLM-5.1

Price (per 1M tokens)

$3 / $15

$1.4 / $4.4

Speed

N/A

N/A

Latency (first answer)

N/A

N/A

Context Window

1M

203K

Quick Verdict

Pick Claude Sonnet 5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. GLM-5.1 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Claude Sonnet 5 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 94 to 74. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

Claude Sonnet 5's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 81.8 against 65.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 80.4% to 63.5%.

Claude Sonnet 5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $3.00 input / $15.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $1.40 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens for GLM-5.1. That is roughly 3.4x on output cost alone. Claude Sonnet 5 gives you the larger context window at 1M, compared with 203K for GLM-5.1.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM-5.1?

Claude Sonnet 5 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 94 to 74. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 80.4% and 63.5%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM-5.1?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 57.4 versus 52.3. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM-5.1?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 63.2 versus 60.9. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, Claude Sonnet 5 or GLM-5.1?

Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 81.8 versus 65.3. Inside this category, GDPval-AA is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Self-host vs API cost

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

Claude Sonnet 5
API / mo$13,500
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: July 1, 2026

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