Simulating realistic Agentic workflow parameters (40,000 in / 1,500 out with 65% cache reuse). GLM-5 (Z.ai) delivers a 80% cost reduction over Claude Opus 5.
| Traffic Volume Tier | Claude Opus 5 Monthly | GLM-5 (Z.ai) Monthly | Monthly Savings by picking GLM-5 (Z.ai) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 reqs/mo (Dev/Testing) | $120.50 | $24.00 | Save $96.50 / mo |
| 10,000 reqs/mo (Small App) | $1,205.00 | $240.00 | Save $965.00 / mo |
| 100,000 reqs/mo (Growth Production) | $12,050.00 | $2,400.00 | Save $9,650.00 / mo |
| 1,000,000 reqs/mo (Scale SaaS) | $120,500.00 | $24,000.00 | Save $96,500.00 / mo |
GLM-5 (Z.ai) is 80% cheaper for Agentic workflow workloads. At standard Agentic workflow parameter ratios (40,000 input tokens, 1,500 output tokens, 65% cache hit), GLM-5 (Z.ai) costs $0.024 per request compared to $0.1205 on Claude Opus 5.
Claude Opus 5 offers a context window of 1,000,000 tokens (max output: 128,000), while GLM-5 (Z.ai) offers 200,000 tokens (max output: 131,072).
At 100,000 requests per month, using GLM-5 (Z.ai) saves $9,650.00 every month (or $115,800.00 annually) compared to Claude Opus 5.
Prompt caching is the single biggest lever — each step re-reads prior context. Summarize or prune tool outputs before appending them to the transcript. Cap the step budget; runaway loops are the #1 surprise on agent invoices.