SambaNova Cloud vs Z.AI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of SambaNova Cloud and Z.AI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
SambaNova Cloud
High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama
SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.
Z.AI
GLM-5.3 frontier model with 1M context — available on Amazon Bedrock
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.3 is the latest generation, supporting a 1M token context window and designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks. GLM-5.3 is now available on Amazon Bedrock, expanding its reach to AWS enterprise customers.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
SambaNova Cloud
Z.AI
Key differentiators
Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.
GLM-5.3 offers a 1M token context window at competitive pricing, now available on Amazon Bedrock — making it accessible to AWS enterprise customers without additional API integrations.
Frequently asked questions
SambaNova Cloud FAQs
What makes SambaNova Cloud different?
SambaNova runs inference on its own Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips rather than NVIDIA GPUs. This delivers very high throughput — over 800 tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b — at competitive per-token rates.
What models does SambaNova Cloud offer?
As of October 2026: gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59), GLM-5.3 ($1.40/$4.40, cached $0.14), MiniMax-M3 ($0.60/$2.40, cached $0.06), DeepSeek-V3.2 ($3.00/$4.50), Meta-Llama-3.3-70B ($0.60/$1.20), and Gemma 4 31B ($0.38/$1.15). See cloud.sambanova.ai/plans/pricing for current rates.
Does SambaNova offer prompt caching?
Yes, on GLM-5.3 (cached input $0.14/1M vs $1.40/1M standard) and MiniMax-M3 (cached input $0.06/1M vs $0.60/1M standard).
Z.AI FAQs
What is GLM-5.3?
GLM-5.3 is the latest model in Z.AI's GLM series, supporting a 1M token context window. It is designed for long-document analysis, coding, and enterprise chat applications in both Chinese and English.
Is GLM-5.3 available on Amazon Bedrock?
Yes. GLM-5.3 was added to the Amazon Bedrock catalog in 2026, making it accessible to AWS enterprise customers via the standard Bedrock API without a separate Z.AI account.
How does Z.AI compare to other Chinese LLM providers?
Z.AI's GLM models compete with Alibaba's Qwen and Moonshot's Kimi series. GLM-5.3 stands out for its 1M context window and Amazon Bedrock availability, making it the most accessible Chinese LLM for AWS enterprise customers.
Provider resources
SambaNova Cloud — High-throughput inference on SambaNova RDU chips — gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, Llama
SambaNova Cloud runs inference on SambaNova's proprietary Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit (RDU) chips, delivering very high throughput (800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b). The catalog covers gpt-oss-120b, GLM-5.3, MiniMax-M3, DeepSeek-V3.2, Meta-Llama-3.3-70B, and Gemma 4 31B. Pricing is PAYG with prompt caching on select models.
Proprietary RDU chips deliver industry-leading throughput on open-weight models at competitive per-token rates.
Z.AI — GLM-5.3 frontier model with 1M context — available on Amazon Bedrock
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.3 is the latest generation, supporting a 1M token context window and designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks. GLM-5.3 is now available on Amazon Bedrock, expanding its reach to AWS enterprise customers.
GLM-5.3 offers a 1M token context window at competitive pricing, now available on Amazon Bedrock — making it accessible to AWS enterprise customers without additional API integrations.
Key strengths compared
SambaNova Cloud
- Proprietary RDU chips deliver very high throughput — 800+ tokens/sec on gpt-oss-120b
- Competitive pricing on gpt-oss-120b ($0.22/$0.59 per 1M)
- Prompt caching on GLM-5.3 (cached input at $0.14/1M)
- Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
- No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
Z.AI
- 1M token context window on GLM-5.3
- Available on Amazon Bedrock for AWS enterprise customers
- Strong Chinese and English bilingual performance
- Smaller international developer community
- Fewer third-party integrations than OpenAI
Key weaknesses compared
SambaNova Cloud
- Smaller model catalog vs OpenRouter or Together AI
- No proprietary frontier models — inference-only platform
- RDU architecture may behave differently from GPU inference for some workloads
Z.AI
- Smaller international developer community
- Fewer third-party integrations than OpenAI
Provider category context
SambaNova Cloud is a inference api, founded in 2017. Z.AI is a frontier lab, founded in 2019. SambaNova Cloud as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers. Z.AI as a frontier lab trains and serves proprietary models with capabilities not available elsewhere.
How to choose between them
Choose SambaNova Cloud if you need High-throughput inference. Choose Z.AI if you need 1m token context window on glm-5.3. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.