ERNIE 5.0 vs GLM 4.7

Baidu · China  |  Z.ai · China · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick ERNIE 5.0 for baidu's flagship omni-modal model — text, image and video understanding or particularly strong on chinese-language reasoning tasks. Pick GLM 4.7 for genuinely permissive open weights — an mit-licensed 358b mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions or strong agentic coding for the price — 73.8% on swe-bench verified undercut most closed frontier models at launch. Choose GLM 4.7 if you need self-hosting or data privacy; ERNIE 5.0 if you want a managed API.

ERNIE 5.0 (Baidu) and GLM 4.7 (Z.ai) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. ERNIE 5.0 is baidu's flagship omni-modal ERNIE model — strong Chinese-language and multimodal reasoning at low cost, though it trails the Western frontier on independent benchmarks. GLM 4.7 is an MIT-licensed 358B open mixture-of-experts with strong 73.8% SWE-Bench Verified coding — but two generations behind GLM 5.2. They diverge most on context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecERNIE 5.0GLM 4.7
ProviderBaidu (China) Z.ai (China)
ReleasedJanuary 22, 2026 December 22, 2025
Context window128K (~192 pages) 200K (~304 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.6/$2.1 per 1M tokens $0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens
Open weight?No — API only Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, image, video, code text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published 73.8%
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

Baidu's flagship omni-modal model — text, image and video understanding

ERNIE 5.0

GLM 4.7 is comparatively weak here — text-only with no vision, and self-hosting a 358B model is a serious hardware commitment

Particularly strong on Chinese-language reasoning tasks

ERNIE 5.0

Baidu's flagship omni-modal ERNIE model — strong Chinese-language and multimodal reasoning at low cost, though it trails the Western frontier on independent benchmarks — and it is the newer of the two.

Competitive API pricing (around $0.60/$2.10 per million tokens)

ERNIE 5.0

ERNIE 5.0 lists competitive API pricing (around $0.60/$2.10 per million tokens) among its strengths; GLM 4.7 does not.

Genuinely permissive open weights — an MIT-licensed 358B mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions

GLM 4.7

Open weights make this possible at all — ERNIE 5.0 is API-only, so it cannot leave the vendor's servers.

Strong agentic coding for the price — 73.8% on SWE-Bench Verified undercut most closed frontier models at launch

GLM 4.7

ERNIE 5.0 is comparatively weak here — trails the Western frontier on aggregate independent tests (AA Intelligence Index ~22 for the tracked Thinking Preview)

An unusually generous 128K maximum output, which suits bulk refactors and long generation

GLM 4.7

Its 200K window holds about 1.6× more than ERNIE 5.0's 128K in a single prompt.

Largest single-prompt input

GLM 4.7

Its 200K window is about 1.6× larger than ERNIE 5.0's 128K, fitting roughly 304 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

GLM 4.7

Larger 200K window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

GLM 4.7

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; ERNIE 5.0 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is baidu's flagship omni-modal model — text, image and video understanding

ERNIE 5.0

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is genuinely permissive open weights — an mit-licensed 358b mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions

GLM 4.7

That is its strongest area.

ERNIE 5.0: where it fits

Baidu's flagship omni-modal ERNIE model — strong Chinese-language and multimodal reasoning at low cost, though it trails the Western frontier on independent benchmarks. Released January 22, 2026 by Baidu, it is built for baidu's flagship omni-modal model — text, image and video understanding, particularly strong on Chinese-language reasoning tasks, competitive API pricing (around $0.60/$2.10 per million tokens), and backed by a major lab with deep China-market integration.

Its trade-offs are real: trails the Western frontier on aggregate independent tests (AA Intelligence Index ~22 for the tracked Thinking Preview), parameter and architecture details are vendor-stated and opaque, closed weights on a China-hosted API, and 128K context is smaller than 1M-token rivals. At $0.6 in / $2.1 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

GLM 4.7: where it fits

An MIT-licensed 358B open mixture-of-experts with strong 73.8% SWE-Bench Verified coding — but two generations behind GLM 5.2. Released December 22, 2025 by Z.ai, it is built for genuinely permissive open weights — an MIT-licensed 358B mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions, strong agentic coding for the price — 73.8% on SWE-Bench Verified undercut most closed frontier models at launch, an unusually generous 128K maximum output, which suits bulk refactors and long generation, and cheap long-running agent loops thanks to aggressive prompt caching.

Its trade-offs: two generations behind — GLM 5, 5.1 and 5.2 have all shipped since, and new builds should default to those, its Verified lead narrows sharply on harder evaluations like SWE-Bench Pro, and text-only with no vision, and self-hosting a 358B model is a serious hardware commitment. At $0.6 in / $2.2 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. GLM 4.7 gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. ERNIE 5.0 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both ERNIE 5.0 and GLM 4.7 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is ERNIE 5.0 or GLM 4.7 better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for ERNIE 5.0, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, ERNIE 5.0 leans toward baidu's flagship omni-modal model — text, image and video understanding while GLM 4.7 leans toward genuinely permissive open weights — an mit-licensed 358b mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, ERNIE 5.0 or GLM 4.7?

GLM 4.7 is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while ERNIE 5.0 is API-metered at $0.6/$2.1 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

GLM 4.7 — 200K vs 128K, about 1.6× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both ERNIE 5.0 and GLM 4.7 together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you ERNIE 5.0, GLM 4.7 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, ERNIE 5.0 or GLM 4.7?

ERNIE 5.0 — released January 22, 2026, about 31 days after GLM 4.7.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.