> Z.ai
Z.ai is Zhipu AI's international developer platform, offering access to the GLM (General Language Model) family. It provides a high-performance alternative to Western models, with the GLM-Flash series offered permanently for free to developers to encourage global adoption of its flagship reasoning models.
// pros
- A genuinely callable API: OpenAI-compatible endpoint (base_url of the form https://api.z.ai/api/paas/v4) usable directly from the openai SDK
- The Flash line is priced at zero on an ongoing basis, not a time-limited trial allowance
- Run directly by the model vendor (Zhipu AI) rather than a relay, so there is no upstream-key-theft concern
- Simple signup: an email is enough to generate an API key in the console, no credit card required
- Covers text, vision and video generation, is listed on AWS Marketplace, and is natively supported by gateways such as liteLLM
// cons
- Only the small Flash models are free; every flagship GLM-5.x model is paid
- Free-tier rate and concurrency ceilings are not published; third-party measurements put it near 1 QPS and ~1000 calls/day, unusable under real load
- Flash models are tuned for speed and reason less deeply than the flagship tier
- The paid GLM Coding Plan draws recurring rate-limit complaints; the vendor adjusts concurrency dynamically and publishes no concrete SLA numbers
- The host recorded here is the API domain api.z.ai, which 301-redirects to z.ai/model-api; the real user entry point is z.ai
- The China-domestic platform (bigmodel.cn) and the international one (z.ai) have separate accounts, quotas and legal entities, which is easy to confuse
This is a vendor free tier. The Flash models are genuinely priced at zero and programmatically callable, which makes them reasonable for low-cost chat, classification and summarisation prototypes plus light vision work. Do not build high-concurrency or deep-reasoning production paths on it: the free ceiling is undocumented and covers only small models, and flagship GLM-5.x still costs money. Sign up via z.ai rather than api.z.ai, and note that accounts on the domestic bigmodel.cn platform do not carry over. Keep sensitive data off the free tier.
community_reputation
Z.ai is Zhipu AI's international brand, a top-tier Chinese model vendor with a clear corporate entity. Public discussion centres on model capability benchmarks (GLM-4.5/4.6/4.7 on coding and agentic tasks) and cheap subscriptions, and is broadly favourable; no exit-scam or fraud allegations were found. The main negative thread concerns the paid GLM Coding Plan's rate limiting: the vendor never published a concurrency figure and tightens limits dynamically based on resource availability, which users experience as paying for throughput they cannot reach. The free Flash tier itself attracts little controversy but also lacks published quota documentation.
imported analysis — independent third party, not Uprouter editorial · verify before relying on it
How we estimated this: the free allowance is converted to a dollar value using the provider’s own pay-as-you-go rates for the models a typical developer would reach for. When the allowance is metered in requests, tokens or minutes rather than dollars, we assume median usage of the cheapest capable model. Because assumptions are involved, the figure carries the est. flag — treat it as an order of magnitude, not a quote.
note: GLM Flash models (4.7/4.5 text, 4.6V vision) listed $0 on official pricing — ongoing free models, not trial credits; ~1 QPS and ~1K calls/day (third-party, unofficial) → ≈$30/mo blended. Flagship GLM-5.x paid.
| Plan | Type | Monthly | Input /1M | Output /1M | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier (source-reported) | free | — | — | — | GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4.5-Flash (text) and GLM-4.6V-Flash (vision) are listed at zero cost for both input and output on the official pricing page, making them ongoing free models rather than trial credits. The free tier is rate-limited (third-party measurements suggest roughly 1 QPS and on the order of 1000 calls/day; no official figure is published). Flagship GLM-5.x models are paid, and a separate GLM Coding Plan subscription exists. |
| Free Tier (GLM-Flash) | free | — | — | — | GLM-4-Flash and GLM-Flash-Vision models are permanently free. |
| GLM-4 (PAYG) | payg | — | $13.89 | $13.89 | Converted from ¥100/M tokens at 7.2 rate. |
| GLM-5.3 (PAYG) | payg | — | $1.40 | $4.40 | International list price for flagship GLM-5.3. |
Pricing normalized from public sources — always verify with the provider.
// model prices
| Model | Input /1M | Output /1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLM-4.5-Flash | — | — | — |
| GLM-4.6V-Flash | — | — | — |
| GLM-4.7-Flash | — | — | 203k |
$ Does Z.ai have a free tier?
Yes — Z.ai offers a free tier that we value at roughly $30.00 in free credits (estimate — derived from rate-limited usage at pay-as-you-go prices). Always confirm current limits on Z.ai's official pricing page — free tiers change without notice.
$ How much does Z.ai cost per 1M tokens?
Z.ai does not publish simple per-1M-token pricing (it may bill per request, per output, or via a subscription plan). Check their official pricing page for exact figures.
$ Is Z.ai safe to use?
Uprouter rates Z.ai as low risk. Rated low risk. an official provider with a free tier with pricing, authentication and terms documented on its own site. The model coverage is consistent with a real upstream, so data and reliability risk are modest. Risk ratings are editorial, evidence-based, and never influenced by affiliate relationships.
Raw community sentiment, shown unblended. Votes never feed into objective data fields like price, risk, or status — and never into sort order.
No published reviews yet — be the first.
// more_informationprice history · live status · risk & confidence · code snippets
price_history
No recorded changes yet.
live_status
full history →best-effort probes · not a guarantee · last 15h ago
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| 29d ago | up | 1729ms |
Uprouter runs its own probes; best-effort, not a guarantee. Probe results depend on our network location and cadence — for production, always use the provider’s own status page.
risk_&_confidence
Rated low risk. an official provider with a free tier with pricing, authentication and terms documented on its own site. The model coverage is consistent with a real upstream, so data and reliability risk are modest.
Confidence reflects how much verifiable evidence (official docs, probe history, community reports) backs this entry. Risk is our editorial assessment of operator reliability and terms — not financial advice.
code_snippets
# Z.ai's own API — get a key from their dashboard
curl https://YOUR-PROVIDER-ENDPOINT/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer THEIR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "glm-4-5-flash",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Hello" }]
}'Direct to the provider — Uprouter receives nothing; verify their current pricing before purchasing.
Ranked by neutral similarity signals only — live status, free-tier shape and free-credit proximity. Commercial relationships never influence this list.