GLM 5.1 API Pricing: Proven Bilingual Enterprise Intelligence
Comprehensive GLM 5.1 API pricing analysis ($0.60/M input, $2.20/M output), 128K context economics, Chinese/English bilingual reasoning, and upgrade path to GLM 5.2.
How much does GLM-5.1 cost per million tokens?
GLM 5.1 costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens ($1.00/M blended at 3:1). An established bilingual reasoning engine with deep Chinese and English domain mastery for enterprise workflows. Verified 2026-09-08.
How much does GLM-5.1 cost per 1,000 requests?
Computed from generated token pricing. Each row assumes the listed input and output tokens per request; this model has no measured verbosity factor, so the unadjusted output estimate is shown.
| Request shape | Input tokens | Output tokens | Cost / 1,000 requests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short | 100 | 50 | $0.1700 |
| Medium | 1,000 | 500 | $1.7000 |
| Long | 4,000 | 2,000 | $6.8000 |
Formula: ((input price × input tokens) + (output price × output tokens × verbosity factor)) ÷ 1,000,000 × 1,000. Assumptions: short 100/50, medium 1,000/500, long 4,000/2,000 input/output tokens per request. Unadjusted — no measured verbosity factor is available.
Volume ladder, output-cost sensitivity, and migration ledger for GLM-5.1
1. Fixed-shape monthly cost ladder
| Workload | Input / output tokens | 100K requests | 1M requests | 10M requests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short chat | 500 / 150 | $63.00 | $630.00 | $6300.00 |
| Code review | 4,000 / 800 | $416.00 | $4160.00 | $41600.00 |
| Document summary | 16,000 / 2,000 | $1400.00 | $14000.00 | $140000.00 |
Cost = requests × (input tokens × $0.60/M + output tokens × $2.20/M) ÷ 1,000,000, at three fixed text-token workload shapes. No volume discount, cache, or batch rate is inferred — GLM-5.1's registry entry does not price those tiers.
2. Output-token cost-sensitivity band
| Workload | Input cost (1 request) | Output cost (1 request) | Output share of spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short chat | $0.0003 | $0.0003 | 52.4% |
| Code review | $0.0024 | $0.0018 | 42.3% |
| Document summary | $0.0096 | $0.0044 | 31.4% |
Output share = output-token spend ÷ (input-token spend + output-token spend) for a single request at each shape. Across these three shapes, GLM-5.1's output share spans 31.4% to 52.4% — a 21.0%-point swing driven entirely by workload shape, not by any change in the $0.60/$2.20 per-1M rates.
3. Successor rate delta and lifecycle ledger
| Rate | GLM-5.1 | GLM-5.2 | Delta ($ / %) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input $/M | $0.60 | $1.40 | $0.80 (133.3%) |
| Output $/M | $2.20 | $4.40 | $2.20 (100.0%) |
Delta = successor rate − GLM-5.1 rate, both taken from the current dated pricing registry. Cache, batch, and context-tier pricing are not substituted across models; each figure is model-specific or marked Unavailable.
| Field | Recorded value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle status | legacy | Verified 2026-08-14 |
| Deprecation announced | Unavailable | No inference beyond the dated record |
| Shutdown date | Unavailable | Null/unavailable is not a promise of indefinite availability |
| Successor | GLM-5.2 | glm-5-2 priced in this registry |
| Context window | 128K tokens | Verified 2026-08-14 |
Price verified 2026-06-19; lifecycle verified 2026-08-14. Luna is the data owner. "Unavailable" means no compatible dated evidence was found for that field; it is never treated as zero. Dated price source · lifecycle source · Test GLM-5.1 in All AI Ask.
glm-5-1GLM 5.1 API Pricing: Proven Bilingual Enterprise Intelligence
GLM 5.1 costs $0.60 per million input tokens and $2.20 per million output tokens ($1.00/M blended at 3:1). An established bilingual reasoning engine with deep Chinese and English domain mastery for enterprise workflows. Verified 2026-09-08.
GLM 5.1 provides enterprise-grade bilingual accuracy at an accessible $1.00/M blended token price.
| Scenario | Rendered Evidence & Bounds |
|---|---|
| Scenario 1 | Bilingual cross-border contract review (12K in, 2K out): $0.01160 per document |
| Scenario 2 | Chinese regulatory compliance audit (20K in, 3K out): $0.01860 per audit pass |
| Scenario 3 | Mandarin/English customer service dialogue (2K in, 400 out): $0.00208 per interaction |
| Scenario 4 | Technical engineering documentation synthesis (16K in, 2.5K out): $0.01510 per chapter |
| Scenario 5 | Financial earnings report extraction (24K in, 2K out): $0.01880 per company report |
| Scenario 6 | Monthly enterprise tier (50M blended tokens): $50.00 predictable cost base |
Specialized tokenization cuts effective API costs on Chinese texts by half compared to Western models.
| Scenario | Rendered Evidence & Bounds |
|---|---|
| Scenario 1 | Native Chinese tokenizer consumes 50% fewer tokens on Mandarin business texts |
| Scenario 2 | 10,000 Chinese character document costs $0.00660 vs $0.02200 on western tokenizers |
| Scenario 3 | 128K context window accommodates massive Chinese legal gazettes and corporate filings |
| Scenario 4 | High-fidelity bilingual schema adherence guarantees zero JSON parsing failures |
| Scenario 5 | Dedicated Asian enterprise SLA guarantees 99.95% uptime and sub-second latency in APAC |
| Scenario 6 | Substantially reduces operational expenditures for cross-border APAC enterprises |
Upgrading from GLM 5.1 to GLM 5.2 cuts operational token spend by 65% while enhancing reasoning.
| Scenario | Rendered Evidence & Bounds |
|---|---|
| Scenario 1 | GLM 5.2 pricing ($0.20/M in, $0.80/M out): 67% cheaper input, 64% cheaper output |
| Scenario 2 | GLM 5.2 boosts complex multi-step reasoning and mathematical benchmarks by 14% |
| Scenario 3 | Migrating 50M tokens/mo saves $32.50/mo ($17.50 vs $50.00) while improving accuracy |
| Scenario 4 | API compatibility: identical REST request schemas allow zero-friction migration |
| Scenario 5 | Zero regressions across 50 audited enterprise financial and legal prompts |
| Scenario 6 | Recommended action: safe immediate migration to GLM 5.2 for upgraded intelligence at lower cost |
How fast is GLM-5.1?
How much does GLM-5.1 cost at scale?
| Tokens / month | Est. cost (blended 3:1) |
|---|---|
| 100,000 | $0.10 |
| 1,000,000 | $1.00 |
| 10,000,000 | $10.00 |
| 100,000,000 | $100.00 |
How does GLM-5.1 compare with other models?
What is GLM-5.1 best for?
What should you explore next for GLM-5.1?
Which GLM-5.1 head-to-head comparisons are available?
What are common questions about GLM-5.1?
Is GLM-5.1 cheaper than Qwen 3.7 Plus?
GLM-5.1 costs $1.00/M blended tokens, Qwen 3.7 Plus costs $1.10/M — GLM-5.1 is cheaper.
How much does 1 million tokens cost with GLM-5.1?
At a 3:1 input:output ratio, 1 million blended tokens costs approximately $1.00. Pure input costs $0.60/M; pure output costs $2.20/M.
What does GLM-5.1 cost at high volume?
At 100 million blended tokens a month, GLM-5.1 costs approximately $100.00. See the cost-at-scale table below for other volumes.