Google vs Z.AI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Google and Z.AI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Updated July 2026.
Gemini 2.5 — the largest context window at the lowest frontier price
Google DeepMind's Gemini family offers some of the most competitive frontier pricing, with Gemini 2.5 Pro delivering top-tier intelligence at $1.25/1M input tokens. The 1M+ token context window is the largest available. Gemini 2.5 Flash is a standout efficient model for vision and multimodal tasks.
Z.AI
GLM frontier models with 1M context
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.2 supports a 1M token context window and is designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks.
Key metrics
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Live token pricing
Strengths & weaknesses
Z.AI
Key differentiators
Frequently asked questions
Google FAQs
How much does the Google Gemini API cost?
Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $1.25/1M input tokens (up to 200K context) and $10/1M output. Gemini 2.5 Flash is $0.15/$0.60 per 1M tokens. Gemini 2.0 Flash is even cheaper at $0.10/$0.40 per 1M tokens.
What is the context window for Gemini models?
Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash both support a 1,048,576-token (1M+) context window — the largest available from any major LLM provider. This makes them ideal for processing entire codebases, books, or long document collections.
Does Gemini support vision and multimodal inputs?
Yes. All Gemini 2.x models natively support images, audio, and video inputs alongside text. Gemini 2.5 Flash is particularly strong for vision tasks at a low cost.
Z.AI FAQs
What is GLM-5.2?
GLM-5.2 is the latest model in Zhipu AI's GLM series, supporting a 1M token context window. It is designed for long-document analysis, coding, and enterprise chat applications.
How does Z.AI compare to other Chinese LLM providers?
Z.AI's GLM models compete with Alibaba's Qwen and Baidu's ERNIE series. GLM-5.2 stands out for its 1M context window and competitive pricing.
Provider resources
Google — Gemini 2.5 — the largest context window at the lowest frontier price
Google DeepMind's Gemini family offers some of the most competitive frontier pricing, with Gemini 2.5 Pro delivering top-tier intelligence at $1.25/1M input tokens. The 1M+ token context window is the largest available. Gemini 2.5 Flash is a standout efficient model for vision and multimodal tasks.
Gemini 2.5 Pro delivers frontier-tier intelligence at $1.25/1M input tokens — the best price-to-performance ratio among all frontier models.
Z.AI — GLM frontier models with 1M context
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.2 supports a 1M token context window and is designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks.
GLM-5.2 offers a 1M token context window at $1.11/1M input tokens, making it one of the most cost-effective long-context models available.
Key strengths compared
- ▸1M+ token context window — largest available
- ▸Best price-per-intelligence at frontier tier ($1.25/1M input)
- ▸Native multimodal: text, image, audio, video
Z.AI
- ▸1M token context window
- ▸Strong Chinese and English bilingual performance
- ▸Enterprise-grade reliability
Provider category context
Google is a frontier lab, founded in 1998. Z.AI is a frontier lab, founded in 2019. Both are frontier lab providers — the comparison is primarily about pricing, model selection, and feature differentiation within the same tier.
How to choose between them
Both Google and Z.AI are frontier labs with proprietary models. Choose based on benchmark performance for your specific task: Google leads on 1m+ token context window — largest available, while Z.AI leads on 1m token context window. For cost-sensitive workloads, compare the cheapest model tier from each provider in the pricing table above — the gap between efficient-tier models is often larger than between flagship models.