Three Chinese AI labs — Alibaba (Qwen), DeepSeek, and Zhipu (GLM) — each have a flagship model competing for developer attention. All three are available through AIWave via a single OpenAI-compatible API key.
This comparison covers the factors that actually matter when choosing between them.
| Qwen 3.5 397B | DeepSeek V4 Pro | GLM-5 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input (USD/1M) | $0.46 | $0.42 | $0.20 |
| Output (USD/1M) | $0.92 | $0.84 | $0.60 |
| Context | 128K | 1M | 128K |
| Max output | 8K | 384K | 8K |
| Provider | Alibaba | DeepSeek | Zhipu AI |
*Prices from AIWave. Model names: qwen3-coder-480b, deepseek-reasoner, glm-4-plus.*
GLM-5 is the cheapest. DeepSeek V4 Pro has the largest context. Qwen 3.5 is the most expensive of the three but the largest parameter count.
qwen3-coder-480b) is tuned specifically for code.Recommendation: Coding → DeepSeek V4 Pro
Recommendation: Chinese content → GLM-5
200 calls/day, 4K input + 2K output, 22 work days.
| Model | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|
| GLM-5 | $9 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | $13 |
| Qwen 3.5 397B | $14 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | $4 |
| GPT-4o | $154 |
*Formula: (4K/1M x input + 2K/1M x output) x 200 x 22.*
All three Chinese models cost roughly 1/10th to 1/15th of GPT-4o for the same workload.
| Your priority | Use this |
|---|---|
| Best coding quality | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Best Chinese language | GLM-5 |
| Largest context (codebase analysis) | DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Lowest cost | GLM-5 |
| Most balanced | Qwen 3.5 397B |
| Fastest responses | DeepSeek V4 Flash |
Most developers don't need to pick just one. AIWave routes all three through the same API — switch with a single model parameter. Use GLM-5 for Chinese content, DeepSeek V4 Pro for coding, and V4 Flash for bulk tasks. The $1 free credit covers hundreds of queries across any model to find what works for your specific workload.