DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 vs Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Verified 2026 FinOps benchmark comparing DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (deepseek/deepseek-chat) vs Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air (z-ai/glm-4.5-air). Simulate cache read multipliers, context cliffs, MAU bills, and P90 latency.
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (deepseek/deepseek-chat) — Automatic Disk KV Cache ($0.16/1M) & Off-Peak Promo
DeepSeek-V4 Pro (1.6T MoE) automatically caches repeated 64-token prompt prefixes on NVMe storage at $0.07/1M input tokens (50% off $0.14 base) with zero code changes required, plus off-peak UTC scheduling discounts.
Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air (z-ai/glm-4.5-air) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to $0.065/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (API ID: deepseek/deepseek-chat) vs Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air (API ID: z-ai/glm-4.5-air), Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air offers lower standard input pricing at $0.13/1M tokens ($0.85/1M output), while Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air leads in cached prefix economics at $0.065/1M tokens (50% discount). DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 achieves a 0ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (280ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 | Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | deepseek/deepseek-chat | z-ai/glm-4.5-air | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.32 / $0.89 | $0.13 / $0.85 | Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.16/1M (50% Off) | $0.065/1M (50% Off) | Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air |
| Context Window / Max Output | 160K In / 16K Out | 128K In / 96K Out | Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (-0ms) |
DeepSeek-V3 is the latest model from the DeepSeek team, building upon the instruction following and coding abilities of the previous versions. Pre-trained on nearly 15 trillion tok
GLM-4.5-Air is the lightweight variant of our latest flagship model family, also purpose-built for agent-centric applications. Like GLM-4.5, it adopts the Mixture-of-Experts (MoE)
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🛰️Switch from DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 to Z.ai: GLM 4.5 Air
GLM-4.5-Air is the lightweight variant of our latest flagship model family, also purpose-built for agent-centric applications. Like GLM-4.5, it adopts the Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) Verified P90 latency of 280ms.