MiniMax M3 vs GLM-5.3: API pricing and features
MiniMax M3 vs GLM-5.3 on BigModel.io: price, context, inputs and Claude Code support. MiniMax M3 $0.30 / $1.20, GLM-5.3 $0.20 / $0.64 per 1M input / output tokens.
In short
- GLM-5.3 is cheaper: a typical coding-agent request (20K in, 2K out) costs about $0.0053, against $0.0084 on MiniMax M3, which costs about 1.6 times as much.
- Only GLM-5.3 works in Claude Code; use the other in OpenCode, Cline, Cursor or another OpenAI-compatible tool.
- Only MiniMax M3 accepts image input.
Prices are what BigModel.io charges today, in US dollars. Quality depends on your task: try both on the same prompt before you switch.
Side by side
| MiniMax M3 | GLM-5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Model ID | minimax-m3 | glm-5.3 |
| Developer | MiniMax | GLM |
| Input / 1M tokens | $0.30 | $0.20 |
| Output / 1M tokens | $1.20 | $0.64 |
| Cached input / 1M | $0.06 | $0.04 |
| Below official price | 4% | 85% |
| Agent request (20K in, 2K out) | $0.0084 | $0.0053 |
| Context window | — | 1M |
| Inputs | Text, Image, Video | Text |
| Claude Code (/v1/messages) | No | Yes |
| Chat Completions | Yes | Yes |
Switch between them
Both use the same key and base URL. Change only the model field:
client.chat.completions.create(model="minimax-m3", ...) # or "glm-5.3"To fall back automatically when one is unavailable, send both in models: "models": ["minimax-m3", "glm-5.3"] Fallback →