China’s Zhipu AI open-sources flagship model, raises prices to narrow gap with US rivals

The company’s second price increase this year signals a push to monetise advanced AI models while keeping costs below US peers

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The move marks Zhipu’s second price increase this year, following a broader overhaul in February that lifted rates by more than 30 per cent. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 9:00pm, 8 Apr 2026

Chinese artificial intelligence company Zhipu AI open-sourced its latest flagship model, GLM-5.1, on Wednesday while raising application programming interface prices by 10 per cent, signalling a shift towards monetising advanced AI capabilities as competition with US rivals intensifies.

The move marked Zhipu’s second price increase this year, following a broader overhaul in February that lifted rates for its coding subscription plans by more than 30 per cent. While the latest adjustment was more modest, it applied across multiple billing categories, including cloud-based input tokens, indicating a more comprehensive recalibration of its pricing strategy.

The combination of open-sourcing its flagship model and raising prices sent Zhipu’s Hong Kong-listed shares up 11.5 per cent on Wednesday.

GLM-5.1 is now priced closer to its US counterparts, though a big gap remains. Zhipu charges US$1.40 per million input tokens and about US$4.40 per million output tokens, while Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 cost US$5 per million input tokens and US$25 per million output tokens as of February 2026.

The model was first released as a proprietary product to coding subscription users late last month, amid speculation that Zhipu was shifting away from an open-source strategy to increasingly focus on monetising demand.

Zhipu’s GLM-5.1 is now priced closer to its US counterparts, though a big gap remains. Photo: Shutterstock

Benchmarking firm Artificial Analysis ranked GLM-5.1 as the strongest open model globally based on overall intelligence, ahead of domestic rivals such as MiniMax, though still behind leading US models from OpenAI and Anthropic.

China’s Zhipu AI open-sources flagship model, raises prices to narrow gap with US rivals

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The company’s second price increase this year signals a push to monetise advanced AI models while keeping costs below US peers

The company’s second price increase this year signals a push to monetise advanced AI models while keeping costs below US peers