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Model comparison

GLM-5 vs Qwen3.6-27B

Data verified

Head-to-head evidence from 27 shared benchmark results across 6 categories. Overall scores shown here use the public BenchAlign v5 ranking lane.

Z.AI
66.06/100
Margin
12.2pts
← winning
53.82/100
1 category wins3 category wins

Public leaderboard positions: GLM-5 #28 (Supported); Qwen3.6-27B #93 (Estimated). Intervals and evidence labels describe ranking uncertainty, not a guarantee for a specific workload.

Evidence parity. GLM-5 and Qwen3.6-27B share 27 comparable benchmark results. 4 of 8 categories are comparable. 22 results are unique to GLM-5; 27 to Qwen3.6-27B.

Updated July 21, 2026
Shared results
27
GLM-5 only
22
Qwen3.6-27B only
27
Comparable categories
4 / 8

Pick GLM-5 if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Qwen3.6-27B only becomes the better choice if mathematics is the priority or you want the cheaper token bill.

Confidence note. This is a partial-evidence comparison with 27 shared benchmark results across 6 evidence categories; 4 of 8 categories currently have scoreable aggregates for both models. Treat the verdict as directional until coverage is more balanced.

Why this result

GLM-5 is clearly ahead on the BenchAlign aggregate, 66.06 to 53.82. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GLM-5's sharpest advantage is in knowledge, where it averages 66.4 against 53.3. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is HLE, 50.4% to 24%. Qwen3.6-27B does hit back in mathematics, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

GLM-5 is also the more expensive model on tokens at $1.00 input / $3.20 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.00 input / $0.00 output per 1M tokens for Qwen3.6-27B. That is roughly Infinityx on output cost alone. Qwen3.6-27B is the reasoning model in the pair, while GLM-5 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. Qwen3.6-27B gives you the larger context window at 262K, compared with 200K for GLM-5.

Category breakdown

Exact category averages are shown below. Not measured means BenchLM does not have enough sourced public coverage for that model and category.

Category scores and score margins for GLM-5 and Qwen3.6-27B
CategoryGLM-5ΔQwen3.6-27B
MathGLM-556.3Margin 32.9Qwen3.6-27B89.2
KnowledgeGLM-566.4Margin 13.1Qwen3.6-27B53.3
CodingGLM-566.3Margin 11.2Qwen3.6-27B77.5
AgenticGLM-556.2Margin 3.1Qwen3.6-27B59.3
ReasoningGLM-560.8MarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27BNot measured
MultilingualGLM-583.1MarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27BNot measured
MultimodalGLM-5Not measuredMarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27B76.7
Inst. FollowingGLM-592.6MarginNo overlapQwen3.6-27BNot measured

Decisive benchmark drivers

The largest measured benchmark gaps in this matchup, with exact reported values.

More
A · GLM-5B · Qwen3.6-27B
  1. HLE

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 50.4%B 24%
    Winner: GLM-5Δ 26.4
    HLE: GLM-5 scored 50.4%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 24%. GLM-5 wins this benchmark.
  2. Terminal-Bench 2.0

    Agentic
    Source ↗
    A 56.2%B 59.3%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 3.1
    Terminal-Bench 2.0: GLM-5 scored 56.2%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 59.3%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.
  3. HMMT Feb 2026

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 86.4%B 84.3%
    Winner: GLM-5Δ 2.1
    HMMT Feb 2026: GLM-5 scored 86.4%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 84.3%. GLM-5 wins this benchmark.
  4. GPQA

    Knowledge
    Source ↗
    A 86%B 87.8%
    Winner: Qwen3.6-27BΔ 1.8
    GPQA: GLM-5 scored 86%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 87.8%. Qwen3.6-27B wins this benchmark.
  5. AIME26

    Math
    Source ↗
    A 95.8%B 94.1%
    Winner: GLM-5Δ 1.7
    AIME26: GLM-5 scored 95.8%; Qwen3.6-27B scored 94.1%. GLM-5 wins this benchmark.

Operational comparison

Runtime and commercial metrics are compared only when both models have a complete sourced value.

MetricGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BComparison
Input / output priceUSD per 1M tokensGLM-5$1 input / $3.2 outputQwen3.6-27B$0 input / $0 outputQwen3.6-27B has the lower combined listed price.
Generation speedtokens per secondGLM-574 tok/sQwen3.6-27BNot availableA complete speed comparison is not available.
First-answer latencyseconds to first tokenGLM-51.64 sQwen3.6-27BNot availableA complete latency comparison is not available.
Context windowmaximum listed tokensGLM-5200KQwen3.6-27B262KQwen3.6-27B lists the larger context window.

Benchmark Deep Dive

AgenticQwen3.6-27B wins
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 56.2%59.3%Qwen3.6-27B leads
Claw-EvalSource 57.7%72.4%Qwen3.6-27B leads
QwenClawBenchSource 54.1%53.4%GLM-5 leads
τ³-bench resultsSource 65.6%Not comparable
DeepPlanningSource 14.6%Not comparable
ToolathlonSource 38%Not comparable
MCP AtlasSource 31.1%Not comparable
MCP-TasksSource 60.8%Not comparable
WideResearchSource 69.8%Not comparable
τ²-bench resultsSource 98.2%94.2%GLM-5 leads
CyberGymSource 43.2%Not comparable
APEX-Agents-AASource 14.5%Not comparable
Gert LabsSource 50.99%54.84%Qwen3.6-27B leads
QwenWebBenchSource 1487Not comparable
AndroidWorldSource 70.3%Not comparable
AA Agentic IndexSource 27.0%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 32.0%Not comparable
GDPval-AASource 1140Not comparable
CodingQwen3.6-27B wins
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
SWE-bench VerifiedSource 77.8%77.2%GLM-5 leads
SWE-bench Verified*Source 72.8%Not comparable
SWE-bench ProSource 55.1%53.5%GLM-5 leads
SWE MultilingualSource 73.3%71.3%GLM-5 leads
SWE-RebenchSource 62.8%Not comparable
React Native EvalsSource 74.8%Not comparable
AA-SciCodeSource 46.2%39.8%GLM-5 leads
Terminal-Bench 2.0Source 59.3%Not comparable
LiveCodeBenchSource 83.9%Not comparable
NL2RepoSource 36.2%Not comparable
AA Coding IndexSource 53.7%Not comparable
Reasoning
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
LongBench v2Source 60.8%Not comparable
AI-NeedleSource 63.3%Not comparable
AA-LCRSource 63.3%68.7%Qwen3.6-27B leads
CritPtSource 2.0%1.1%GLM-5 leads
KnowledgeGLM-5 wins
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
GPQASource 86%87.8%Qwen3.6-27B leads
GPQA-DSource 86.0%Not comparable
SuperGPQASource 66.8%66%GLM-5 leads
MMLU-ProSource 85.7%86.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
MMLU-Pro (Arcee)Source 85.8%Not comparable
HLESource 50.4%24%GLM-5 leads
Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexSource 39.5%37.0%GLM-5 leads
AA-GPQA DiamondSource 82.0%84.2%Qwen3.6-27B leads
AA-HLESource 27.2%21.6%GLM-5 leads
AA-Omniscience IndexSource 2.0%-19.8%GLM-5 leads
AA-Omniscience AccuracySource 26.9%19.2%GLM-5 leads
AA-Omniscience Hallucination RateSource 34.0%48.3%GLM-5 leads
MMLU-ReduxSource 93.5%Not comparable
C-EvalSource 91.4%Not comparable
MathQwen3.6-27B wins
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
AIME26Source 95.8%94.1%GLM-5 leads
AIME25 (Arcee)Source 93.3%Not comparable
HMMT Feb 2025Source 97.5%93.8%GLM-5 leads
HMMT Nov 2025Source 96.9%90.7%GLM-5 leads
HMMT Feb 2026Source 86.4%84.3%GLM-5 leads
MMAnswerBenchSource 82.5%80.8%GLM-5 leads
FrontierMath v2 (Tiers 1-3)Source 16.434%Not comparable
FrontierMath v2 (Tier 4)Source 2.100%Not comparable
Multilingual
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
MMLU-ProXSource 83.1%Not comparable
NOVA-63Source 55.1%Not comparable
Multimodal
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
Design Arena WebsiteSource 1278Not comparable
MMMUSource 82.9%Not comparable
MMMU-ProSource 75.8%Not comparable
RealWorldQASource 84.1%Not comparable
DynaMathSource 85.6%Not comparable
MStarSource 81.4%Not comparable
SimpleVQASource 56.1%Not comparable
CharXivSource 78.4%Not comparable
CC-OCRSource 81.2%Not comparable
CountBenchSource 97.8%Not comparable
RefCOCO (avg)Source 92.5%Not comparable
ERQASource 62.5%Not comparable
Video-MME (with subtitle)Source 87.7%Not comparable
VideoMMMUSource 84.4%Not comparable
MLVU (M-Avg)Source 86.6%Not comparable
V*Source 94.7%Not comparable
AA-MMMU-ProSource 74.6%Not comparable
Inst. Following
BenchmarkGLM-5Qwen3.6-27BResult
IFEvalSource 92.6%Not comparable
AA-IFBenchSource 72.3%67.6%GLM-5 leads
Frequently Asked Questions (5)

Which is better, GLM-5 or Qwen3.6-27B?

GLM-5 is ahead on BenchLM's BenchAlign leaderboard, 66.06 to 53.82. The biggest single separator in this matchup is HLE, where the scores are 50.4% and 24%.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GLM-5 or Qwen3.6-27B?

GLM-5 has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 66.4 versus 53.3. Inside this category, HLE is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GLM-5 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 77.5 versus 66.3. Inside this category, AA-SciCode is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GLM-5 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 89.2 versus 56.3. Inside this category, HMMT Nov 2025 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GLM-5 or Qwen3.6-27B?

Qwen3.6-27B has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 59.3 versus 56.2. Inside this category, Claw-Eval 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
API / mo$3,150
Self-host / moNot listed
Break-even
Proprietary model — self-hosting not applicable.
Qwen3.6-27B
API / mo$0
Self-host / mo$429
Break-even
Model the full break-even

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Last updated: July 21, 2026

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