GLM 4.7 vs GPT-5.4 Mini

Z.ai · China  |  OpenAI · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

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. Pick GPT-5.4 Mini for free for every chatgpt user or fast, low-cost general tasks. Choose GLM 4.7 if you need self-hosting or data privacy; GPT-5.4 Mini if you want a managed API.

GLM 4.7 (Z.ai, China) and GPT-5.4 Mini (OpenAI, US) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. 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. GPT-5.4 Mini is openAI's free, fast workhorse — capable general AI with no subscription needed. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM 4.7GPT-5.4 Mini
ProviderZ.ai (China) OpenAI (US)
ReleasedDecember 22, 2025 March 17, 2026
Context window200K (~304 pages) 400K (~600 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens $0.75/$4.5 per 1M tokens
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable No — API only
Modalitiestext, code text, image, code
SWE-Bench Verified73.8% Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

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 — GPT-5.4 Mini 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

At $0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-5.4 Mini ($0.75/$4.5 per 1M tokens), and that gap compounds at volume.

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

GLM 4.7

An MIT-licensed 358B open mixture-of-experts with strong 73.8% SWE-Bench Verified coding — but two generations behind GLM 5.2 — and it runs cheaper at $0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens.

Free for every ChatGPT user

GPT-5.4 Mini

OpenAI's free, fast workhorse — capable general AI with no subscription needed — and it carries the larger 400K context.

Fast, low-cost general tasks

GPT-5.4 Mini

OpenAI's free, fast workhorse — capable general AI with no subscription needed — and it is the newer of the two.

Subagent capabilities

GPT-5.4 Mini

GPT-5.4 Mini lists subagent capabilities among its strengths; GLM 4.7 does not.

Lowest cost at scale

GLM 4.7

At $0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.

Largest single-prompt input

GPT-5.4 Mini

Its 400K window is about 2× larger than GLM 4.7's 200K, fitting roughly 600 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

GLM 4.7

At $0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens it undercuts GPT-5.4 Mini, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

GPT-5.4 Mini

Larger 400K 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; GPT-5.4 Mini is API-only.

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

GLM 4.7

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is free for every chatgpt user

GPT-5.4 Mini

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

GPT-5.4 Mini or GLM 4.7

Origin (China vs US) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.

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 are real: 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.

GPT-5.4 Mini: where it fits

OpenAI's free, fast workhorse — capable general AI with no subscription needed. Released March 17, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for free for every ChatGPT user, fast, low-cost general tasks, subagent capabilities, and native multimodal reasoning.

Its trade-offs: smaller context than flagship models, and not for the hardest reasoning. At $0.75 in / $4.5 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. GPT-5.4 Mini 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 GLM 4.7 and GPT-5.4 Mini 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 GLM 4.7 or GPT-5.4 Mini better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for GPT-5.4 Mini, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, GLM 4.7 leans toward genuinely permissive open weights — an mit-licensed 358b mixture-of-experts with no commercial restrictions while GPT-5.4 Mini leans toward free for every chatgpt user, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, GLM 4.7 or GPT-5.4 Mini?

GLM 4.7 is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while GPT-5.4 Mini is API-metered at $0.75/$4.5 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?

GPT-5.4 Mini — 400K vs 200K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both GLM 4.7 and GPT-5.4 Mini together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you GLM 4.7, GPT-5.4 Mini 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, GLM 4.7 or GPT-5.4 Mini?

GPT-5.4 Mini — released March 17, 2026, about 3 months 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.