API cost decision in 10 seconds

Qianfan-OCR-Fast vs GLM 5

Pick GLM 5 when budget and context both matter.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick GLM 5 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GLM 5 is estimated at $1.56 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $0.52 (25.2% lower).

Cost-first pickGLM 5

Context-first pickGLM 5

Sample savings$0.5225.2%

10x traffic gap$5.25

GLM 5 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $5.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

GLM 5 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Qianfan-OCR-Fast	GLM 5
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	GLM 5	$4.81	$3.96
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	GLM 5	$3.49	$2.52
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	GLM 5	$14.73	$10.2

Cheaper input GLM 5 $0.68 vs $0.6 / 1M

GLM 5 is $0.08 cheaper per 1M input tokens (11.8% lower; 1.13x difference).

Cheaper output GLM 5 $2.81 vs $1.92 / 1M

GLM 5 is $0.89 cheaper per 1M output tokens (31.7% lower; 1.46x difference).

Larger context GLM 5 65.54K vs 202.75K

GLM 5 has 137.22K more context (3.09x larger).

Sample workload GLM 5 $2.08 vs $1.56

GLM 5 is $0.52 cheaper on the standard workload (25.2% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Qianfan-OCR-Fast Calculating… Estimated API cost

GLM 5 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

GLM 5 has the lower input price; GLM 5 has the lower output price; GLM 5 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, GLM 5 is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast and $1.56 for GLM 5.

Best Fit

Choose Qianfan-OCR-Fast when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose GLM 5 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GLM 5 is estimated at $1.56 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $0.52 (25.2% lower).
GLM 5 is $0.52 cheaper on the standard workload (25.2% lower).
GLM 5 is $0.08 cheaper per 1M input tokens (11.8% lower; 1.13x difference).
GLM 5 is $0.89 cheaper per 1M output tokens (31.7% lower; 1.46x difference).
GLM 5 has 137.22K more context (3.09x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Qianfan-OCR-Fast (Baidu)	GLM 5 (Z.ai)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.68	$0.6
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$2.81	$1.92
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$2.08	$1.56
Context Window	65.54K	202.75K
Release Date	2026-04-20	2026-02-11

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	GLM 5	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, GLM 5 is estimated at $1.56 vs $2.08 for Qianfan-OCR-Fast, saving $0.52 (25.2% lower).
High-volume input processing	GLM 5	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	GLM 5	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	GLM 5	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.21.
ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.42.
ERNIE 4.5 300B A47B can replace Qianfan-OCR-Fast when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.83.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite offers 1.05M context with $1 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Baidu catalog

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Z.ai catalog

Check other Z.ai models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

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Qianfan-OCR-Fast

Qianfan-OCR-Fast is a domain-specific multimodal large model purpose-built for OCR. By leveraging specialized OCR training data while preserving versatile multimodal intelligence, it provides a powerful performance upgrade over Qianfan-OCR.

GLM 5

GLM-5 is Z.ai’s flagship open-source foundation model engineered for complex systems design and long-horizon agent workflows. Built for expert developers, it delivers production-grade performance on large-scale programming tasks, rivaling leading...