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GLM-5.1 vs Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

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

GLM-5.1

83

VS

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

56

2 categoriesvs1 categories

Verified leaderboard positions: GLM-5.1 #21 · Qwen3.5-35B-A3B #18

Pick GLM-5.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Category Radar

Head-to-Head by Category

Category Breakdown

Agentic

GLM-5.1
65.3vs50.6

+14.7 difference

Coding

GLM-5.1
60.9vs58.4

+2.5 difference

Knowledge

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
52.3vs79.3

+27.0 difference

Operational Comparison

GLM-5.1

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B

Price (per 1M tokens)

$1.4 / $4.4

$0 / $0

Speed

N/A

N/A

Latency (TTFT)

N/A

N/A

Context Window

203K

262K

Quick Verdict

Pick GLM-5.1 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B only becomes the better choice if knowledge is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

GLM-5.1 is clearly ahead on the provisional aggregate, 83 to 56. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GLM-5.1's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 65.3 against 50.6. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 63.5% to 40.5%. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B does hit back in knowledge, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GLM-5.1 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.40 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3.5-35B-A3B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Qwen3.5-35B-A3B gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 203K for GLM-5.1.

Benchmark Deep Dive

Frequently Asked Questions (4)

Which is better, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 is ahead on BenchLM's provisional leaderboard, 83 to 56. The biggest single separator in this matchup is Terminal-Bench 2.0, where the scores are 63.5% and 40.5%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 79.3 versus 52.3. GLM-5.1 stays close enough that the answer can still flip depending on your workload.

Which is better for coding, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 60.9 versus 58.4. Inside this category, SWE-Rebench is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GLM-5.1 or Qwen3.5-35B-A3B?

GLM-5.1 has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 65.3 versus 50.6. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 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.

GLM-5.1
API / mo$4,350
Self-host / mo$18,221
Break-even264M/day
Qwen3.5-35B-A3B
API / mo$0
Self-host / moN/A
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: May 13, 2026

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