Pick Gemma 4 for self-hosted, data-private deployment or running locally or on edge devices. Pick GLM 5.1 for long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs) or state-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped swe-bench pro at launch). On a tight budget at scale, Gemma 4 is the value pick.
Gemma 4 (Google, US) and GLM 5.1 (Z.ai, China) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Gemma 4 is google's open-weight family: Apache 2.0 licensed, multimodal, and sized from edge devices up, for private self-hosting. GLM 5.1 is an open-weight (MIT) Chinese coding model built for long-horizon agentic engineering, topping SWE-Bench Pro at launch while running autonomously for up to 8 hours. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences
Context window: Gemma 4 holds 1.3× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 200K (~300 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
Ecosystem: this is a US-vs-China matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Specifications
Spec
Gemma 4
GLM 5.1
Provider
Google (US)
Z.ai (China)
Released
April 2, 2026
April 7, 2026
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
200K (~300 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
$1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Self-hosted, data-private deployment: Gemma 4 — A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Running locally or on edge devices: Gemma 4 — A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Fine-tuning on your own data: Gemma 4 — A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs): GLM 5.1 — A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
State-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped SWE-Bench Pro at launch): GLM 5.1 — A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
Sustained tool use across thousands of calls: GLM 5.1 — A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
Lowest cost at scale: Gemma 4 — At Open weight (self-host / free), it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Largest single-prompt input: Gemma 4 — Its 256K window is about 1.3× larger, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: Gemma 4 — At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts GLM 5.1, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: Gemma 4 — Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is self-hosted, data-private deployment: Gemma 4 — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs): GLM 5.1 — That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules: Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1 — Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Gemma 4: where it fits
Google's open-weight family: Apache 2.0 licensed, multimodal, and sized from edge devices up, for private self-hosting. Released April 2, 2026 by Google, it is built for self-hosted, data-private deployment, running locally or on edge devices, fine-tuning on your own data, and multimodal tasks over a 256K context.
Its trade-offs are real: trails frontier closed models on the hardest tasks, and needs your own hardware to run. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
GLM 5.1: where it fits
An open-weight (MIT) Chinese coding model built for long-horizon agentic engineering, topping SWE-Bench Pro at launch while running autonomously for up to 8 hours. Released April 7, 2026 by Z.ai, it is built for long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs), state-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped SWE-Bench Pro at launch), sustained tool use across thousands of calls, and self-hostable under a permissive MIT license.
Its trade-offs: text-only, with no image, audio, or video input, and 754B-parameter MoE demands heavy GPU resources to self-host. At $1.4 in / $4.4 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." Gemma 4 (US) and GLM 5.1 (China) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. Gemma 4 is the cheaper option, which matters at volume. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1 better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Gemma 4 leans toward self-hosted, data-private deployment while GLM 5.1 leans toward long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1?
Gemma 4 is cheaper — Open weight (self-host / free) vs $1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemma 4 — 256K vs 200K, about 1.3× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Gemma 4 and GLM 5.1 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Gemma 4, GLM 5.1 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, Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1?
GLM 5.1 — released April 7, 2026, about 5 days after Gemma 4.
Gemma 4 vs GLM 5.1
Google · US | Z.ai · China · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Gemma 4 for self-hosted, data-private deployment or running locally or on edge devices. Pick GLM 5.1 for long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs) or state-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped swe-bench pro at launch). On a tight budget at scale, Gemma 4 is the value pick.
Gemma 4 (Google, US) and GLM 5.1 (Z.ai, China) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Gemma 4 is google's open-weight family: Apache 2.0 licensed, multimodal, and sized from edge devices up, for private self-hosting. GLM 5.1 is an open-weight (MIT) Chinese coding model built for long-horizon agentic engineering, topping SWE-Bench Pro at launch while running autonomously for up to 8 hours. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
▸Context window: Gemma 4 holds 1.3× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 200K (~300 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
▸Ecosystem: this is a US-vs-China matchup — they differ in pricing philosophy, data-residency options, and tooling ecosystems, not only benchmarks.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Gemma 4
GLM 5.1
Provider
Google (US)
Z.ai (China)
Released
April 2, 2026
April 7, 2026
Context window
256K (~384 pages)
200K (~300 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
$1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Self-hosted, data-private deployment
Gemma 4
A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Running locally or on edge devices
Gemma 4
A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Fine-tuning on your own data
Gemma 4
A core design strength of Gemma 4.
Long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs)
GLM 5.1
A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
State-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped SWE-Bench Pro at launch)
GLM 5.1
A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
Sustained tool use across thousands of calls
GLM 5.1
A core design strength of GLM 5.1.
Lowest cost at scale
Gemma 4
At Open weight (self-host / free), it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Largest single-prompt input
Gemma 4
Its 256K window is about 1.3× larger, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ Gemma 4
At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts GLM 5.1, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ Gemma 4
Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is self-hosted, data-private deployment
→ Gemma 4
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs)
→ GLM 5.1
That is its strongest area.
An enterprise with regional data-residency rules
→ Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1
Origin (US vs China) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.
Gemma 4: where it fits
Google's open-weight family: Apache 2.0 licensed, multimodal, and sized from edge devices up, for private self-hosting. Released April 2, 2026 by Google, it is built for self-hosted, data-private deployment, running locally or on edge devices, fine-tuning on your own data, and multimodal tasks over a 256K context.
Its trade-offs are real: trails frontier closed models on the hardest tasks, and needs your own hardware to run. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
GLM 5.1: where it fits
An open-weight (MIT) Chinese coding model built for long-horizon agentic engineering, topping SWE-Bench Pro at launch while running autonomously for up to 8 hours. Released April 7, 2026 by Z.ai, it is built for long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs), state-of-the-art open-weight coding (topped SWE-Bench Pro at launch), sustained tool use across thousands of calls, and self-hostable under a permissive MIT license.
Its trade-offs: text-only, with no image, audio, or video input, and 754B-parameter MoE demands heavy GPU resources to self-host. At $1.4 in / $4.4 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." Gemma 4 (US) and GLM 5.1 (China) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. Gemma 4 is the cheaper option, which matters at volume. The pragmatic move is to run one real task through both and judge the outputs against your own constraints — including where your data is allowed to be processed.
Want both Gemma 4 and GLM 5.1 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.
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Gemma 4 leans toward self-hosted, data-private deployment while GLM 5.1 leans toward long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1?
Gemma 4 is cheaper — Open weight (self-host / free) vs $1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens.
Which has the bigger context window?
Gemma 4 — 256K vs 200K, about 1.3× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Gemma 4 and GLM 5.1 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Gemma 4, GLM 5.1 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, Gemma 4 or GLM 5.1?
GLM 5.1 — released April 7, 2026, about 5 days after Gemma 4.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.