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Qwen-Plus vs GLM 4.5 Air: API price, context & features · api14

Qwen: Qwen-Plus vs Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air

A side-by-side comparison of Qwen: Qwen-Plus ($0.91 / 1M tokens) and Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air ($0.45 / 1M tokens) using current USD prices and capabilities from the api14 catalog. Both run through the same OpenAI-compatible API.

Specifications

	Qwen: Qwen-Plus	Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air
Provider	Qwen	Z.ai
Input	$0.91 / 1M tokens	$0.45 / 1M tokens
Output	$2.73 / 1M tokens	$2.98 / 1M tokens
Cache read	$0.18 / 1M tokens	$0.09 / 1M tokens
Cache write	$1.14 / 1M tokens	-
Context window	1,000,000	131,072
Max output	32,768	98,304
Input	text	text
Output	text	text
Tool calling
Structured output
Reasoning control
Added	Feb 1, 2025	Jul 25, 2025

Key differences

Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air is 50% cheaper on input tokens.
Qwen: Qwen-Plus is 8% cheaper on output tokens.
Qwen: Qwen-Plus reads 7.6× more context (1,000,000 tokens).
Only Qwen: Qwen-Plus supports structured JSON output.
Only Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air supports reasoning effort control.
A request with 1,000 input and 500 output tokens costs $0.00228 with Qwen: Qwen-Plus and $0.00194 with Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air.

In depth

Qwen: Qwen-Plus is made by Qwen and is a text model that takes text in and returns text out. Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air is made by Z.ai and is also a text model with text input and text output. Both are served through api14 under the model ids qwen/qwen-plus and z-ai/glm-4.5-air, so from the point of view of what you send and receive, they sit in the same category. The choice between them comes down to context size, parameter support and price rather than to any difference in modality.

The clearest split is context. Qwen-Plus offers a much larger context window than GLM 4.5 Air, so it is the one to reach for when your prompt or your accumulated conversation is long. GLM 4.5 Air is the only one of the two that exposes reasoning controls (the reasoning and include_reasoning parameters), which matters if you want the model to work through a problem before answering. Qwen-Plus is the only one that exposes structured outputs, which matters if you need the response to conform to a schema. On price the two are not aligned: GLM 4.5 Air is the cheaper option for input, while Qwen-Plus is the cheaper option for output. Neither model is the sole option for tool calling, since both accept tools and tool_choice.

For day to day work, pick Qwen-Plus when the job involves large inputs, such as feeding in a long document, a big code file or a long chat history, and when you want the reply to come back in a fixed shape via structured outputs. Pick GLM 4.5 Air when the task benefits from explicit reasoning and when your cost is dominated by input tokens rather than output tokens, since that is where it is cheaper. If your workload is mostly short prompts with short answers, the output price advantage of Qwen-Plus may offset its higher input price, so it is worth checking the live price table against your own input to output ratio before committing.

Calling either model through api14 works the same way. The API is OpenAI compatible, so you point your existing client at the api14 base URL, send your key, and set the model field. To use Qwen-Plus set model to qwen/qwen-plus; to use GLM 4.5 Air set model to z-ai/glm-4.5-air. Everything else in the request body, the messages array, temperature, max_tokens and so on, stays as it is. The one thing to watch is parameters: if you rely on structured outputs, that is available on Qwen-Plus but not on GLM 4.5 Air, and if you rely on reasoning controls, that is available on GLM 4.5 Air but not on Qwen-Plus. Switching the model id without adjusting those fields will either be ignored or rejected depending on the parameter.

There are still cases where the other model is the better pick. If you have settled on GLM 4.5 Air for its reasoning behaviour but your inputs are short and your outputs are long, Qwen-Plus is the cheaper choice on output and gives you a far larger context window as well. Conversely, if you have settled on Qwen-Plus for its context size but your workload is input heavy and you do not need structured outputs, GLM 4.5 Air is the cheaper choice on input and adds reasoning controls you would otherwise go without.

Switch with one string

Both models use the same endpoint and request shape. Change the model value from "qwen/qwen-plus" to "z-ai/glm-4.5-air" and prompts, streaming and tools keep working.

Qwen: Qwen-Plus details & playground →Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air details & playground →

import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api14.com/api/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.API14_API_KEY,
});

const result = await client.chat.completions.create({
  "model": "z-ai/glm-4.5-air",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Explain vector databases in two sentences."
    }
  ]
});
console.log(result.choices[0].message.content);

Qwen: Qwen-Plus vs Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air

Specifications

Key differences

In depth

Switch with one string

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