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Z.ai vs Particle.AI
Particle serves GLM 5.3 Flash through Vercel AI Gateway at $0.10 in and $0.40 out; Z.ai sells it first-party for less. Gateway access is Particle's case.
By The Subconscious Team · Updated
Z.ai vs Particle.AI: key differences
The same model shows up on both price lists. Z.ai sells GLM-5.3-Flash at $0.075 in and $0.25 out, and Particle.AI serves GLM 5.3 Flash through Vercel AI Gateway at $0.10 in and $0.40 out, with 1M context and cache reads at $0.03 per million. On list price alone, the maker is cheaper. Z.ai also offers the full GLM-5.3 at $1.40 in and $4.40 out, free older Flash models and the GLM Coding Plan from $18 a month. Particle's catalog is tiny, adding only DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731.
Particle's case is access and routing. It sits inside Vercel AI Gateway, so a team can try it with no new contract and use it as a fallback or price-optimized route next to other providers. Z.ai's servers sit mostly in China, adding 100 to 200ms from the US or Europe and raising data concerns for some enterprises. Particle is very early, with little public track record and thin public detail on funding and founders, and some of its listings trail faster hosts on latency. Worth testing both on the same GLM Flash workload.
What Z.ai and Particle.AI do
Z.ai
Z.AI is the international brand of Chinese lab Zhipu AI, maker of the GLM models. Its current flagship, GLM-5.3, shipped August 17, 2026 at $1.40 in and $4.40 out per million tokens, with cached input at $0.26. GLM-5.3-Flash costs $0.075 in and $0.25 out, and several older Flash models are priced at zero, a real free tier instead of trial credits. GLM-5, released in February 2026, is a 744B mixture-of-experts model under an MIT license, and at launch it ranked first among open-weight models on the Artificial Analysis index with a record-low hallucination score.
Example models: GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash
Full Z.ai profile
Particle.AI
Particle AI is an early San Francisco infrastructure startup with a mission to make intelligence as cheap and abundant as electricity. The team works on post-training, inference optimization and distributed systems, all aimed at pushing down cost per unit of intelligence. It is still hiring its founding team and works fully in person. Public detail about funding and founders is thin as of this writing.
Example models: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash
Full Particle.AI profileShould you choose Z.ai or Particle.AI?
Z.ai
Choose Z.ai for
- The lowest list price on GLM-5.3-Flash
- Access to full GLM-5.3 and the coding plan
- Free older Flash models
Particle.AI
Choose Particle.AI for
- GLM and DeepSeek Flash models through an existing Vercel AI Gateway setup
- A fallback route for GLM Flash traffic
- 1M context with $0.03 cache reads
Z.ai vs Particle.AI at a glance
| Attribute | Z.ai |  Particle.AI |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights (MIT) | Open weights |
| Flagship models | GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, GLM 5.3 Flash |
| Speed | ~80 tok/s on GLM-5.3 | ~157 tok/s on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash |
| Price | $1.40 in, $4.40 out (GLM-5.3); free Flash tier | $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash) |
| Customization | Open weights, no license limits | Unknown |
| Deployment | API, GLM Coding Plan | Via Vercel AI Gateway |
| Long context | 1M (GLM-5.3) | 1M |
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Z.ai and Particle.AI?
Particle serves GLM 5.3 Flash through Vercel AI Gateway at $0.10 in and $0.40 out; Z.ai sells it first-party for less. Gateway access is Particle's case.
When should I choose Z.ai over Particle.AI?
The lowest list price on GLM-5.3-Flash; Access to full GLM-5.3 and the coding plan; Free older Flash models.
When should I choose Particle.AI over Z.ai?
GLM and DeepSeek Flash models through an existing Vercel AI Gateway setup; A fallback route for GLM Flash traffic; 1M context with $0.03 cache reads.
Is Z.ai or Particle.AI cheaper?
Z.ai: $1.40 in, $4.40 out (GLM-5.3); free Flash tier. Particle.AI: $0.10 in, $0.40 out (GLM 5.3 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.
Which has more context, Z.ai or Particle.AI?
Z.ai: 1M (GLM-5.3). Particle.AI: 1M.
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Running long-horizon agents?
If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious. Our inference stack treats a long-horizon trace as the primary workload, so speed, cost, and accuracy hold up deep into the trace.