GLM 5.1 vs NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

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

Quick verdict

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). Pick NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b) or 1m-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% ruler @ 1m). On a tight budget at scale, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is the value pick.

GLM 5.1 (Z.ai, China) and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (NVIDIA, 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 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. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is nVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecGLM 5.1NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super
ProviderZ.ai (China) NVIDIA (US)
ReleasedApril 7, 2026 March 11, 2026
Context window200K (~300 pages) 1M (~1,500 pages)
Price (in/out)$1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable Yes — self-hostable
Modalitiestext, code text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published 60.47%
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

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.

High-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

A core design strength of NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

A core design strength of NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

Strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

A core design strength of NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

Lowest cost at scale

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

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

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Its 1M window is about 5× larger, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

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

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.

Anyone whose priority is long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs)

GLM 5.1

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b)

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super or GLM 5.1

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

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 are real: 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.

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super: where it fits

NVIDIA's open 120B-total/12B-active hybrid Mamba-Transformer MoE built for high-throughput agentic reasoning at 1M-token context. Released March 11, 2026 by NVIDIA, it is built for high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x GPT-OSS-120B), 1M-token context with strong long-context retrieval (91.6% RULER @ 1M), strong math reasoning (90.21% AIME 2025), and fully open weights, datasets, and recipes for self-hosting.

Its trade-offs: text-only; no image, audio, or video input, and requires roughly 8x H100-80GB GPUs to self-host at BF16. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

The bottom line for this matchup

This is less "which is smarter" and more "which ecosystem fits." GLM 5.1 (China) and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super (US) differ on pricing philosophy, data-residency, and tooling as much as on raw scores. NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 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 GLM 5.1 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 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 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for GLM 5.1, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, GLM 5.1 leans toward long-horizon autonomous agentic engineering (up to 8-hour runs) while NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super leans toward high-throughput agentic reasoning (up to 2.2x gpt-oss-120b), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, GLM 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super is cheaper — $1.4/$4.4 per 1M tokens vs Open weight (self-host / free).

Which has the bigger context window?

NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super — 1M vs 200K, about 5× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both GLM 5.1 and NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you GLM 5.1, NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super 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 5.1 or NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super?

GLM 5.1 — released April 7, 2026, about 27 days after NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Super.

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.