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GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

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Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#2
> So we ran it head-to-head against Claude Opus 4.8: same one-shot prompt, build a 3D platformer in raw WebGL from scratch

Running a single one-shot prompt is not a benchmark, not is it representative of any sort of real-world usage.

Most agent usage is collaborative so you need to test things like reliability (when I delegate a task, does it complete it without making up test results for e.g.) and steerability (does it obey my instructions or does it just do what it thinks is best).

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#3

> So we ran it head-to-head against Claude Opus 4.8: same one-shot prompt, build a 3D platformer in raw WebGL from scratch Running a single one-shot prompt is not a benchmark, not is it representative of any sort of real-world usage. Most agent usage is collaborative so you need to test things like reliability (when I delegate a task, does it complete it without making up test results for e.g.) and steerability (does…

sure that's why we look at a mix of formal benchmarks, one longer analysis of a side-by-side, and various other people who we trust to form an opinion, all covered in the article - not intended to be a formal benchmark, there are enough of those.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#4

> So we ran it head-to-head against Claude Opus 4.8: same one-shot prompt, build a 3D platformer in raw WebGL from scratch Running a single one-shot prompt is not a benchmark, not is it representative of any sort of real-world usage. Most agent usage is collaborative so you need to test things like reliability (when I delegate a task, does it complete it without making up test results for e.g.) and steerability (does…

Hi, I am the author, I completely agree! I set out to run a vibe test on this one, not a benchmark, the real benchmarks are listed. My test shows what the models can do when both tasked with a long-running, technically difficult, one-shot task.

I think your test you describe (collaborative, task delegation, task completion, TTD, steerability) is a great format for a future test that I will definitely try out.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#5
>On output tokens, GLM-5.2 is less than a fifth the price of Opus.

Opus is most expensive model in pay as you go model, but IMO fair comparison should include subscription price as well. For example when one has $100 Claude Max and use it up through the month, it might not be more expensive than GLM, or at least not 5x.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#6
I've been checking out GLM 5.2 on some projects and few thoughts on it:

- it takes it sweet time to get code rolling, not the fastest model by any means

- it strays a lot during discovery/planning but then corrects

- it's not steering friendly, as it hallucinates things that it doesn't follow later on

- its output is quite good

A sample use case: I was optimizing rendering on Swift+Zig codebase. It chocked on 5k data entries.

GLM 5.2 spent 20 minutes building the benchmarks and getting data out, which made me frustrated so I blocked non-editing tool access and went AFK, after approx. 30 minutes I found that it used already-made benchmarks and some "conclusions" to optimize 3 choke points. Output pointed that it couldn't validate suspicions and asked for more data.

Implementation worked well, it was idiomatic and non-intrusive. I would even say that it was more idiomatic than GPT 5.5 effects on same repo.

I would opt in in using it more BUT GPT usually completes same requests 5x faster.

GLM 5.2 was spark for preparing and running inside isolated containers with JJ workspaces (so that multiple can be ran in parallel).

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#7
GLM-5.2 is quietly becoming the most interesting open model release this year. The coding benchmarks are surprisingly close to frontier models at a fraction of the inference cost.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#8
post #5

>On output tokens, GLM-5.2 is less than a fifth the price of Opus. Opus is most expensive model in pay as you go model, but IMO fair comparison should include subscription price as well. For example when one has $100 Claude Max and use it up through the month, it might not be more expensive than GLM, or at least not 5x.

GLM has subscription plans too.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#9
post #5

>On output tokens, GLM-5.2 is less than a fifth the price of Opus. Opus is most expensive model in pay as you go model, but IMO fair comparison should include subscription price as well. For example when one has $100 Claude Max and use it up through the month, it might not be more expensive than GLM, or at least not 5x.

Yes this is true. This test was run on a $20 pro Claude subscription. I would definitely love to try use both models on the highest plans for a whole month and compare the two, great format for a future head-to-head comparison.

Re: GLM 5.2 vs. Opus

#10
post #3

> So we ran it head-to-head against Claude Opus 4.8: same one-shot prompt, build a 3D platformer in raw WebGL from scratch Running a single one-shot prompt is not a benchmark, not is it representative of any sort of real-world usage. Most agent usage is collaborative so you need to test things like reliability (when I delegate a task, does it complete it without making up test results for e.g.) and steerability (does…

sure that's why we look at a mix of formal benchmarks, one longer analysis of a side-by-side, and various other people who we trust to form an opinion, all covered in the article - not intended to be a formal benchmark, there are enough of those.

Then maybe you should add that caveat emptor to the article?

You make a very strong claim at the end that the hype is mostly real, and making it clear to what extent your claim holds should help the reader.

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