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GLM-5.3 vs Kimi K3
Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, GLM-5.3 scores higher on 2 and Kimi K3 on 4. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, GLM-5.3 is at 42.4 and Kimi K3 at 54.1 (out of 100).
Scores as published by each board; table composed September 25, 2026.
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Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | GLM-5.3 | Kimi K3 | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,621.8 | 1,659.6 | Kimi K3 |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 76.1 | 79.2 | Kimi K3 |
| SimpleBench AVG@5 % (private set) | 66.2 | 60.7 | GLM-5.3 |
| LLM Stats LLM Stats Score · composite (0-100), their rendered top 15 | 52.1 | 52.5 | Kimi K3 |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 57 | 57.8 | Kimi K3 |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 44.8 | 43.6 | GLM-5.3 |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
GLM-5.3 at a glance
- Developer
- Zhipu AI
- Status
- Live since August 14, 2026
- API price
- $1.40 input / $4.40 output per 1M tokens · Z.AI, glm-5.3
- Context window
- 1M tokens
Live - same 743B base as 5.2, every gain from post-training · tops CyberGym · open weights on Hugging Face (zai-org/GLM-5.3, 141 safetensors files, public when we read it Sep 25; repo created Aug 25).
GLM-5.3 tops CyberGym and trails the frontier on exploitation — and we missed it because the sweep had no eyes on models.dev
2026-08-14 · Z.ai shipped GLM-5.3 today, and we did not catch it. The entry was armed and the pattern was right — the sweep simply had no source that carried the id. That is now fixed, and the fix is the more useful half of this post.
Kimi K3 at a glance
- Developer
- Moonshot
- Status
- Live since July 15, 2026
- API price
- $3 input / $15 output per 1M tokens · Moonshot AI, kimi-k3
- Context window
- 1.05M tokens
Live — dropped Jul 15 · 2.8T · open weights landed Jul 27 (1.56 TB, MXFP4).
Kimi K3, day one: impressive, expensive, and a little slow
2026-07-16 · Kimi K3 has been live for a day, and the picture forming is more interesting than the launch-night hype. Here's everything we're seeing so far.
GLM-5.3 vs Kimi K3: quick answers
Which is better, GLM-5.3 or Kimi K3?
It depends on what you measure. Of the 6 public leaderboards that rate both, GLM-5.3 scores higher on 2 and Kimi K3 on 4. GLM-5.3's widest lead is on SimpleBench; Kimi K3's widest lead is on LiveBench. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, GLM-5.3 is at 42.4 and Kimi K3 at 54.1 (out of 100).
Which is newer, GLM-5.3 or Kimi K3?
GLM-5.3. It went live on August 14, 2026, 30 days after Kimi K3 (July 15, 2026).
Which is cheaper, GLM-5.3 or Kimi K3?
GLM-5.3 is cheaper on both input and output. On each vendor's own API, GLM-5.3 is $1.40 input / $4.40 output per million tokens and Kimi K3 is $3 input / $15 output per million tokens. Prices as published in the models.dev catalog, as of 2026-09-25.
Which has the bigger context window, GLM-5.3 or Kimi K3?
Kimi K3, at 1.05M tokens against GLM-5.3's 1M, as each vendor lists it.
Who makes GLM-5.3 and Kimi K3?
GLM-5.3 is from Zhipu AI; Kimi K3 is from Moonshot.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed September 25, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
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Also: the bench index · API pricing · the wire