Simulating realistic Agentic workflow parameters (40,000 in / 1,500 out with 65% cache reuse). GLM-5 (Z.ai) delivers a 67% cost reduction over Claude Sonnet 4.6 (OpenRouter).
| Traffic Volume Tier | GLM-5 (Z.ai) Monthly | Claude Sonnet 4.6 (OpenRouter) Monthly | Monthly Savings by picking GLM-5 (Z.ai) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 reqs/mo (Dev/Testing) | $24.00 | $72.30 | Save $48.30 / mo |
| 10,000 reqs/mo (Small App) | $240.00 | $723.00 | Save $483.00 / mo |
| 100,000 reqs/mo (Growth Production) | $2,400.00 | $7,230.00 | Save $4,830.00 / mo |
| 1,000,000 reqs/mo (Scale SaaS) | $24,000.00 | $72,300.00 | Save $48,300.00 / mo |
GLM-5 (Z.ai) is 67% 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 $0.0723 on Claude Sonnet 4.6 (OpenRouter).
GLM-5 (Z.ai) offers a context window of 200,000 tokens (max output: 131,072), while Claude Sonnet 4.6 (OpenRouter) offers 1,000,000 tokens (max output: 128,000).
At 100,000 requests per month, using GLM-5 (Z.ai) saves $4,830.00 every month (or $57,960.00 annually) compared to Claude Sonnet 4.6 (OpenRouter).
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.