GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct vs GLM 5 Turbo

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct at $1.73 in and $2.30 out and GLM 5 Turbo at $1.38 in and $4.60 out — per million tokens, from the same wallet.

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

OpenAI

1¢

for a client proposal

$1.73 in · $2.30 out / 1M

4K context · released September 2023

Full page →

GLM 5 Turbo

Z.ai

1.1¢

for a client proposal

$1.38 in · $4.60 out / 1M

203K context · released 5 months ago

Full page →

Asking all both at once — identical prompt, identical context — costs about 2.1¢ for a typical client proposal.

At a glance

Cheapest input: GLM 5 Turbo at $1.38 per million tokens.
Cheapest output: GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct at $2.30 per million tokens.
Largest context: GLM 5 Turbo at 203K tokens — about 290 pages.

Cost per task

Estimated totals at the rates above. Solid bar is input, lighter bar is output.

Quick code fix

2K in · 500 out

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

0.46¢

GLM 5 Turbo

0.51¢

Draft a client proposal from notes

5K in · 800 out

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

needs 5K ctx

GLM 5 Turbo

1.1¢

Context-heavy session (Alyph workspace)

155K in · 4K out

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

needs 155K ctx

GLM 5 Turbo

$0.23

Analyze a 50-page legal contract

35K in · 1K out

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

needs 35K ctx

GLM 5 Turbo

$0.05

Large architecture refactor

250K in · 3K out

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

needs 250K ctx

GLM 5 Turbo

needs 250K ctx

Solid part of each bar is input tokens, the lighter part is output. Models that don’t fit a task are marked instead of priced.

Cost vs Token Amount

Drag the slider to adjust the split between input and output workload.

80% Input20% Output

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

GLM 5 Turbo

Adjust the ratio slider to change how output tokens influence the final price for equivalent workloads.

Pricing

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

GLM 5 Turbo

Input / 1M tokens

$1.73

$1.38

Output / 1M tokens

$2.30

$4.60

Cached input / 1M

—

$0.276

Specs

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

GLM 5 Turbo

Provider

OpenAI

Z.ai

Released

September 2023

5 months ago

Context window

203K

Max output

131K

Input

Text

Output

Text

Reasoning

Answers directly

Shows its thinking

Knowledge cutoff

2021-09-30

—

Try it with real numbers

2K tokens in · 500 tokens out.

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct

OpenAI

0.46¢

for this task

75% input · 25% output

Full pricing →

GLM 5 Turbo

Z.ai

0.51¢

for this task

55% input · 45% output

Full pricing →

All 2, same prompt and context: 0.97¢. That is the entire cost of the comparison.

Your $5 welcome credit covers about 517 of these.

Which should you pick?

For long documents, GLM 5 Turbo has the largest context window here — 203K tokens.

On price, GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct is the cheapest of the two on a typical task, at about 1¢.

If you want to watch the model think, GLM 5 Turbo shows reasoning; the other answers directly.

Or don’t pick. Send the identical prompt to all both, read the answers side by side, and keep the winner. How to run a fair bake-off →

GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct pricing →GLM 5 Turbo pricing →Add Lyria 3 Clip Preview Add Grok 4.20

Questions, answered

Which is cheaper, GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct or GLM 5 Turbo?

On a typical client proposal (5K tokens in, 800 out): GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct at 1¢; GLM 5 Turbo at 1.1¢. Long prompts can change the order when long-context rates apply.

Which has the largest context window?

GLM 5 Turbo — 203K tokens, about 290 pages.

Can I run GPT-3.5 Turbo Instruct and GLM 5 Turbo side by side on Alyph?

Yes — that is what Alyph is built for: the identical prompt with identical context to all 2, answers rendered side by side, billed from one wallet. This exact combination costs about 2.1¢ for a typical task.

Ask both at once

Identical prompt, identical context, answers side by side — about 2.1¢ for a typical client proposal. Free to start, with $5 of credit.