Saad Ullah
The AI landscape is shifting faster than many anticipated. Z AI's newly released GLM 4.6 has posted benchmark results that put it within striking distance of industry heavyweights like DeepSeek V3.1 and Qwen3 235B. What makes this particularly interesting isn't just the raw performance—it's that GLM 4.6 is an open-weights model, meaning anyone can access and deploy it. This release suggests that the gap between open-source and closed AI systems is closing rapidly.
Performance Highlights
The Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v3.0 combines results from 10 major evaluations, including MMLU-Pro, GPQA Diamond, and AIME 2025. In this ranking, GLM 4.6 scored 56 points in reasoning mode—a solid jump from the 51 points its predecessor, GLM 4.5, achieved. Even in standard non-reasoning mode, it managed 45 points, edging past GPT-5 minimal's 43.
What really stands out is the efficiency improvement. Most models need more computational resources to boost their scores, but GLM 4.6 actually uses fewer tokens while performing better. Token consumption dropped 14% in reasoning tasks, falling from 100M to 86M. In non-reasoning mode, it needs just 12M tokens, making it both cheaper and faster to run than many alternatives.
Technical Specifications
- Context Window: 200K tokens (expanded from 128K in GLM 4.5)
- Model Size: 355B total parameters with 32B active
- Memory Requirements: Approximately 710GB in BF16 precision
- License: MIT (fully open)
- Deployment Options: Available through Z AI's API and providers like DeepInfra, Novita, GMI Cloud, and Parasail
With a reasoning score of 56, GLM 4.6 sits just below DeepSeek V3.1 at 58 and Qwen3 235B at 57, while outperforming models like Gemini 2.5 and Claude 4.1 Opus on certain benchmarks. The leaders—GPT-5 Codex at 68 and Claude 4.5 Sonnet at 65—still hold the top spots, but GLM 4.6's open licensing gives it a distinct advantage for companies and researchers who value transparency and customization.
This isn't just another model release. GLM 4.6 represents a broader trend: open-source AI is moving from "good enough" to genuinely competitive. The combination of strong reasoning, better efficiency, and open access makes it a compelling option for organizations that don't want to be locked into proprietary ecosystems. If Z AI keeps up this momentum, we might be looking at a real shift in how the AI market operates—one where open models aren't just alternatives, but legitimate first choices.
Saad Ullah
