# Z.ai vs Venice

> Z.ai lists GLM-5.3 at $1.40 in and $4.40 out, while Venice charges $1.75 and $5.50 for GLM 5.3. The premium buys zero retention and a broader catalog.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/z-ai-vs-venice · By The Subconscious Team · Updated September 30, 2026

## How they compare

GLM 5.3 is available both ways, and Z.ai is cheaper per token. Its first-party price is $1.40 in and $4.40 out with cached input at $0.26, versus $1.75 and $5.50 on Venice. Z.ai also runs a real free tier on older Flash models, prices GLM-5.3-Flash at $0.075 in, and sells the GLM Coding Plan from $18 a month, which Z.ai says covers 15 to 30x the fee at API rates. Its Anthropic-compatible endpoint lets Claude Code run on GLM with a few environment variables. The downside is geography. Z.ai's servers sit mostly in China, adding 100 to 200ms from the US or Europe and raising data concerns for enterprises.

Venice addresses that concern with contracts rather than price. It runs GLM 5.3 and other open models under contract-enforced zero data retention, with TEE or end-to-end encrypted inference on select models, and its cheapest GLM option, GLM 4.7 Flash, lists at $0.06 in and $0.40 out. One OpenAI-compatible key also reaches Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4, uncensored fine-tunes and proxied closed models across 370+ total. Z.ai is the direct source for new GLM releases, though its Coding Plan quota burns 2 to 3x faster on premium models during Beijing peak hours. Budget coding in Claude Code fits Z.ai. Privacy-sensitive GLM traffic, or apps that need other models too, fits Venice.

## What each one does

### 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.

### Venice

Venice is a privacy-focused AI platform founded in 2024 by Erik Voorhees, the crypto entrepreneur behind ShapeShift. It pairs a consumer chat app with a developer API that works as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI's chat endpoint and covers text, image, audio and video across 370+ models. Open models such as GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 and Venice's own uncensored fine-tunes run under a private tier with contract-enforced zero data retention, and some add TEE inference or end-to-end encryption, where only an attested enclave can decrypt the prompt. Closed models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google are proxied under an anonymized tier that hides user identity but leaves prompt content visible to the upstream provider.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Z.ai for

- Budget agentic coding on the GLM Coding Plan
- Claude Code running on GLM via an Anthropic-compatible endpoint
- Free Flash tier for prototyping

### Choose Venice for

- GLM 5.3 under contract-enforced zero retention
- Uncensored models alongside GLM
- One key for GLM, Kimi and DeepSeek

## At a glance

| Attribute | Z.ai | Venice |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights (MIT) | Open weights, plus proxied closed models |
| Flagship models | GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash | GLM 5.3, Kimi K3, DeepSeek V4 Pro |
| Speed | ~80 tok/s on GLM-5.3 | - |
| Price | $1.40 in, $4.40 out (GLM-5.3); free Flash tier | $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking |
| Customization | Open weights, no license limits | - |
| Deployment | API, GLM Coding Plan | Serverless API, consumer app |
| Long context | 1M (GLM-5.3) | 1M on most current models |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Z.ai and Venice?

Z.ai lists GLM-5.3 at $1.40 in and $4.40 out, while Venice charges $1.75 and $5.50 for GLM 5.3. The premium buys zero retention and a broader catalog.

### When should I choose Z.ai over Venice?

Budget agentic coding on the GLM Coding Plan; Claude Code running on GLM via an Anthropic-compatible endpoint; Free Flash tier for prototyping.

### When should I choose Venice over Z.ai?

GLM 5.3 under contract-enforced zero retention; Uncensored models alongside GLM; One key for GLM, Kimi and DeepSeek.

### Is Z.ai or Venice cheaper?

Z.ai: $1.40 in, $4.40 out (GLM-5.3); free Flash tier. Venice: $0.06–$12 in, $0.28–$60 out per 1M; DIEM staking. The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

### Which has more context, Z.ai or Venice?

Z.ai: 1M (GLM-5.3). Venice: 1M on most current models.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Z.ai](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-z-ai.md), [Subconscious vs Venice](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-venice.md).

Full profiles: [Z.ai](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/z-ai.md), [Venice](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/venice.md).