TokenMix Research Lab · 2026-04-24
GLM Free API Access 2026: Z.ai Tiers + Alternatives
Z.ai (Zhipu AI) offers genuinely useful free tier access to its GLM family — GLM-5.1 at $0.45/
TokenMix Research Lab · 2026-04-24
Z.ai (Zhipu AI) offers genuinely useful free tier access to its GLM family — GLM-5.1 at $0.45/
| Claim | Status |
|---|---|
| Z.ai free tier 1000 req/day | Confirmed |
| GLM-5.1 paid $0.45/ .80 per MTok | Confirmed |
| MIT license on GLM-5.1 | Confirmed |
| SWE-Bench Pro #1 (70%) | Confirmed |
| International sign-up works | Yes |
| Z.ai not named in distillation allegations | Confirmed |
| Supports OpenAI-compatible API | Yes |
Snapshot note (2026-04-24): Z.ai's 1000 req/day free-tier threshold and GLM-5.1 $0.45/ .80 paid-tier pricing are current per z.ai at snapshot. Free-tier details change periodically — Z.ai has revised limits twice in the past 12 months. GLM-5.1's "SWE-Bench Pro #1 at 70%" claim is Z.ai-reported and aligned with third-party leaderboards as of April 2026; DeepSeek V4 (released 2026-04-23) may shift the SOTA calculation if its 81% SWE-Bench claim verifies independently.
Free tier (after signup):
Enough for:
Not enough for:
Most developers exhaust free tier within a week of real use → upgrade to paid tier.
| Model | Input $/MTok | Output $/MTok | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLM-5.1 | $0.45 | .80 | SWE-Bench Pro #1, MIT |
| GLM-4.7 | $0.30 | .20 | Previous gen, still good |
| GLM-5 (earlier) | $0.35 | .40 | Older but valid |
| GLM-4-Vision | $0.40 | .60 | Multimodal |
| GLM-4-Long | $0.80 | $2.40 | 1M context variant |
No subscription tier required — pay-as-you-go from your account balance. Deposit minimum $5-10 to start.
Enterprise: contact Z.ai for custom rates, dedicated endpoints, SLA.
Z.ai (z.ai international domain or bigmodel.cn China domestic) supports:
Compared to DeepSeek direct (API itself remains accessible from US, but US federal agencies — NASA, Pentagon, Congress, Navy — have internally banned employee use since early 2026, and many regulated US enterprises have followed suit), Z.ai remains fully accessible with no equivalent procurement concerns.
Setup:
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key="your_zai_key",
base_url="https://open.bigmodel.cn/api/paas/v4"
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="glm-5.1",
messages=[{"role":"user","content":"Hello GLM"}]
)
Or via TokenMix.ai for unified multi-provider.
GLM-5.1 open-weight under MIT means you can:
For startups planning to scale past 700M users or generate synthetic training data: MIT is strictly better than Llama license.
Practical caveat: self-hosting 744B MoE requires 8× H100 80GB minimum. Beyond most non-enterprise budgets. For hosted GLM-5.1: use Z.ai direct or TokenMix.ai.
Signs you've outgrown free tier:
Upgrade paths:
Genuinely free tier (no card required initially). 1000 req/day is real, enforced. Upgrade to paid tier only when you exceed. Not freemium bait-and-switch.
ChatGLM was the original model family name. Current branding: GLM (dropping "Chat" prefix). Zhipu/Z.ai the company. Same lineage.
Weights under MIT: yes, self-host free. API: rate-limited free tier, paid beyond. No "commercial use fee" — just pay for inference if using hosted.
GLM-5.1 wins SWE-Bench Pro (70% vs DeepSeek V3.2's ~60%). Similar pricing tier. Procurement: GLM cleaner (not in distillation allegations). For production coding, GLM-5.1 increasingly the default pick. See GLM-5.1 review.
Yes, native. Standard OpenAI tool schema. Works with LangChain, LlamaIndex, agent frameworks.
Z.ai has not announced specifics. Typical release cadence 6-12 months between major versions. GLM-5.1 released April 7, 2026; expect GLM-5.2 summer 2026, GLM-6 late 2026 or 2027.
Yes — weights are open. LoRA on single H100 for small fine-tunes. Full fine-tune needs 8× H100. MIT license permits redistributing fine-tuned derivatives.
By TokenMix Research Lab · Updated 2026-04-24