GLM 4.7 vs GPT-6 Astra

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-6 Astra for computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%) or cybersecurity exploit development (exploitbench 100%). Choose GLM 4.7 if you need self-hosting or data privacy; GPT-6 Astra if you want a managed API.

GLM 4.7 (Z.ai, China) and GPT-6 Astra (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-6 Astra is openAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. 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-6 Astra
ProviderZ.ai (China) OpenAI (US)
ReleasedDecember 22, 2025 September 3, 2026
Context window200K (~304 pages) 1.05M tokens (~1,575 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.6/$2.2 per 1M tokens $10/$50 per 1M tokens
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable No — API only
Modalitiestext, code text, image
SWE-Bench Verified73.8% Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published 96.3%

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-6 Astra 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-6 Astra ($10/$50 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

GPT-6 Astra is comparatively weak here — pricing doubles for prompts over 272K tokens (input/cache 2x, output 1.5x)

Computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%)

GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks — and it carries the larger 1.05M tokens context.

Cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%)

GPT-6 Astra

OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks — and it is the newer of the two.

Frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%)

GPT-6 Astra

GPT-6 Astra lists frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%) 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-6 Astra

Its 1.05M tokens window is about 5.2× larger than GLM 4.7's 200K, fitting roughly 1,575 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-6 Astra, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

GPT-6 Astra

Larger 1.05M tokens 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-6 Astra 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 computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%)

GPT-6 Astra

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

GPT-6 Astra 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-6 Astra: where it fits

OpenAI's flagship reasoning model for computer use, browsing, coding and science, released September 3, 2026 with near-perfect scores on FrontierMath, ExploitBench and long-context recall benchmarks. Released September 3, 2026 by OpenAI, it is built for computer & browser use (ScreenSpot-Pro 92.7%), cybersecurity exploit development (ExploitBench 100%), frontier math reasoning (FrontierMath Tier 4: 97.6%), and long-context recall (MRCR v2 512K-1M: 96.3%).

Its trade-offs: no native audio or video input, pricing doubles for prompts over 272K tokens (input/cache 2x, output 1.5x), trails Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 on some coding evals (DeepSWE v1.1: 74.1 vs 75.4), and a separate opt-in "Daybreak" program gives vetted cybersecurity defenders a less-restricted version for legitimate vulnerability research; the public version already refuses ~91.5% of offensive cyber jailbreak attempts by default. At $10 in / $50 out per million tokens, it sits in the premium 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-6 Astra 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-6 Astra 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-6 Astra better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for GPT-6 Astra, 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-6 Astra leans toward computer & browser use (screenspot-pro 92.7%), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, GLM 4.7 or GPT-6 Astra?

GLM 4.7 is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while GPT-6 Astra is API-metered at $10/$50 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-6 Astra — 1.05M tokens vs 200K, about 5.2× 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-6 Astra together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you GLM 4.7, GPT-6 Astra 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-6 Astra?

GPT-6 Astra — released September 3, 2026, about 9 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.