DeepSeek V4-Pro is hiking prices — from August 17, peak input runs ¥9 and output ¥27, roughly a 3× jump. Zhipu GLM-5.3 launched August 14 and carries over GLM-5.2's ¥8/¥28 list price. Two flagship "complex coding agent" models now sit at near-identical prices, so the decision comes down to capability.
Here's the full price comparison: how much DeepSeek's hike changes, how GLM-5.3 and V4-Pro stack up across peak, off-peak and cache dimensions, how top-up and discounts work, where the official entry is, how rate limits differ, and whether switching is worth it.
Price Comparison: The Two Are Nearly Tied at Peak After the Hike
First takeaway of the price comparison: during peak daytime hours, GLM-5.3 and DeepSeek V4-Pro are now the same price. DeepSeek's pricing page announced peak/off-peak pricing effective 00:00 August 17 — all figures below are per million tokens (source):
| DeepSeek V4-Pro | Before | Off-peak (after) | Peak (after) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input (cache miss) | ¥3 | ¥4.5 | ¥9 |
| Output | ¥6 | ¥13.5 | ¥27 |
| Cache-hit input | ¥0.025 | ¥0.15 | ¥0.30 |
Peak hours are Beijing time 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-18:00; everything else is off-peak. Now put GLM-5.3 into the price comparison (GLM-5.3's standalone API price is unpublished, so we use GLM-5.2's ¥8/¥28 as a reference, source):
| Dimension | GLM-5.3 (inherits 5.2 price) | DeepSeek V4-Pro peak | DeepSeek V4-Pro off-peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| Input (cache miss) | ¥8 | ¥9 | ¥4.5 |
| Output | ¥28 | ¥27 | ¥13.5 |
| Cache-hit input | ¥2 | ¥0.30 | ¥0.15 |
At peak, GLM is ¥1 cheaper on input, DeepSeek ¥1 cheaper on output — effectively a tie. Off-peak DeepSeek halves its price, and cache hits are an order of magnitude cheaper. The real question in this price comparison isn't the headline rate, but when and how you call.
Capability: GLM-5.3 Leads Most Coding Benchmarks
Once price is even, capability decides — and GLM-5.3 wins 7 of 9 comparable benchmarks. Per Zhipu's official comparison chart (source), GLM-5.3 vs DeepSeek V4-Pro:
| Benchmark | GLM-5.3 | DeepSeek V4-Pro |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE | 66.9 | 62.7 |
| Agents' Last Exam | 28.5 | 25.7 |
| HLE with Tools | 62.5 | 60.0 |
| CyberGym | 84.5% | 83.3% |
| Terminal Bench 2.1 | 88.2 | 87.9 |
DeepSeek only leads on NL2Repo and Toolathlon Verified. GLM-5.3 launched August 14, shares GLM-5.2's base and lifts coding roughly 50% through post-training, targeting Claude Fable 5 (source). Caveat: this is Zhipu's own chart — DeepSeek hasn't published official V4-Pro benchmarks, so don't treat it as final.
Top-Up, Discounts and the Official Entry
Both are Open Platform pay-as-you-go services with the same top-up logic: fund a balance, create an API key, pay per token. The Zhipu API entry is open.bigmodel.cn, DeepSeek API is platform.deepseek.com — register and top up in the console, with gift balance spent first.
The discount gap is cache and time-of-day: DeepSeek offers off-peak half-price plus cache-hit input down to ¥0.15-0.30; Zhipu's cache-hit input is ¥2 with no time-of-day pricing, though Batch API settles supported text models at roughly 50%. Both are OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible, so switching in Claude Code, Cursor or Cline is just a Base URL and key swap.
Quota, Usage and Rate Limits
Your API quota is your balance, and rate limits tie to account concurrency — separate from monthly Coding Plans. DeepSeek caps concurrency at V4-Flash 2500 and V4-Pro 500, returning HTTP 429 beyond that. Zhipu's Open Platform limits depend on account tier and cumulative top-up, so check the console.
Don't confuse this with GLM Coding Plan's "credit quota + 50% off-peak" — that's a subscription using a Coding-specific key. Here we compare the two vendors' pay-as-you-go APIs.
Is It Worth Switching?
If you run complex coding agents at daytime peak, GLM-5.3 is stronger at near-equal price; if you can shift to off-peak or reuse cache heavily, DeepSeek V4-Pro is cheaper. Three signals:
- Your load concentrates in weekday peak (9:00-12:00, 14:00-18:00): prices tie, so compare capability — GLM-5.3 wins on balance.
- You can move heavy jobs off-peak: DeepSeek's ¥4.5/¥13.5 nearly halves the bill.
- You have heavy repeated context (fixed system prompts, long histories, RAG): DeepSeek's ¥0.15-0.30 cache hit crushes GLM's ¥2.
For a broader price comparison, also check Kimi API, OpenAI API, Claude API, and quota-based Volcengine or Tianyi. GLM-5.3's pitch is "new flagship at an inherited reference price"; DeepSeek's is "last low-price window before the hike + extreme cache discounts."
Caveats
Before you switch, here are three caveats to keep in mind — don't compare headline prices alone.
- GLM-5.3's standalone API price is unpublished; the ¥8/¥28 here inherits GLM-5.2 and may change once Zhipu prices it.
- DeepSeek's hike only takes effect August 17; August 14-16 still bills the old ¥3/¥6, so lock in early if you can.
- The capability comparison is Zhipu's single-sided chart; DeepSeek's official benchmarks aren't out, so validate against your own workloads.