Claude Opus 4.8 vs GLM-5.2
Claude Opus 4.8 and GLM-5.2 are both current production-tier models. GLM-5.2 is meaningfully cheaper at $1.4 / $4.4 per 1M. Claude Opus 4.8 leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge. GLM-5.2 leads on multilingual.
Specs side by side
| Metric | Anthropic Claude Opus 4.8 | Z.ai GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price (per 1M) | $5 | $1.4 |
| Output price (per 1M) | $25 | $4.4 |
| Context window | 1M tokens | 1M tokens |
| Speed tier | slow | balanced |
| Open weights | No | Yes |
| EU region | Yes | No |
| Free tier | No | bigmodel.cn |
| Prompt caching | Yes | Yes |
| Vision input | Yes | No |
| Extended thinking | Yes | Yes |
When to choose each
Choose Claude Opus 4.8 if…
- EU data residency is required
- HIPAA eligibility is required
- You need image input / vision
- Coding is central to your workload
- Reasoning is central to your workload
Choose GLM-5.2 if…
- Cost is a priority ($1.4 / $4.4 per 1M vs $5 / $25 per 1M)
- You need open weights for self-hosting or fine-tuning
- You want a free tier for prototyping
- Multilingual is central to your workload
Benchmark delta
Claude Opus 4.8 leads on
- Coding
- Reasoning
- General knowledge
- Long-context retrieval
- Instruction following
- Tool use
GLM-5.2 leads on
- Multilingual
FAQ — Claude Opus 4.8 vs GLM-5.2
Claude Opus 4.8 vs GLM-5.2 — which is better?
Claude Opus 4.8 and GLM-5.2 are both current production-tier models. GLM-5.2 is meaningfully cheaper at $1.4 / $4.4 per 1M. Claude Opus 4.8 leads on coding, reasoning, general knowledge. GLM-5.2 leads on multilingual. The right pick depends on your use case — see "When to choose each" above for a data-driven decision.
How does Claude Opus 4.8 pricing compare to GLM-5.2?
Claude Opus 4.8 costs $5 / $25 per 1M vs GLM-5.2 at $1.4 / $4.4 per 1M. GLM-5.2 is cheaper on output tokens by roughly 468%. Both support prompt caching, which reduces effective cost by 80-90% on repeat system prompts.
Does Claude Opus 4.8 or GLM-5.2 have the bigger context window?
GLM-5.2 has a 1M-token context window — 1× the 1M context of Claude Opus 4.8. Enough for entire codebases, books, or multi-document RAG.
Is there a free tier for Claude Opus 4.8 or GLM-5.2?
Claude Opus 4.8: no — Free via Claude.ai web chat; API requires paid credits. GLM-5.2: yes — Free tier with monthly token allowance.
Which is better for coding — Claude Opus 4.8 or GLM-5.2?
Claude Opus 4.8 leads on coding benchmarks (Claude Opus 4.8: 97/100, GLM-5.2: 93/100). For production coding agents also weigh tool-use performance — Claude Opus 4.8 scores 96, GLM-5.2 scores 86.