GLM 5 Turbo
GLM 5 Turbo is the speed-optimized variant of Z.AI's GLM-5, released March 15, 2026. It trades some reasoning depth for faster throughput and lower latency while retaining GLM-5's multiple thinking modes and agentic capabilities.
View API reference- Input and output price
- Input $1.20, Output $4, Per 1M tokens
- 24h uptime
- Loading AI Gateway uptime
import { streamText } from 'ai'
const result = streamText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?'})Copy link to headingPlayground
Try out GLM 5 Turbo by Z.AI. Usage is billed to your team at API rates. Free users (those who haven't made a payment) get $5 of credits every 30 days.
GLM 5 Turbo
GLM 5 Turbo
Copy link to headingProviders
Route requests across multiple providers. Copy a provider slug to set your preference. Visit the docs for more info. Using a provider means you agree to their terms, listed under Legal.
Copy link to headingUptime24 hours
Direct request success rate on AI Gateway and per-provider. Visit the docs for more info.
Copy link to headingThroughput24 hours
P50 throughput on live AI Gateway traffic, in tokens per second (TPS). Visit the docs for more info.
Copy link to headingLatency24 hours
P50 time to first token (TTFT) on live AI Gateway traffic, in milliseconds. View the docs for more info.
Getting started
Call GLM 5 Turbo through AI Gateway with the AI SDK generateText and streamText functions, or through the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses, and Anthropic Messages APIs by changing the base URL. AI Gateway authenticates the request and routes it to an available provider.
Install the AI SDK (pnpm add ai dotenv), create an API key from the API Keys page, and set it as AI_GATEWAY_API_KEY in your environment. Full setup is covered in the text generation quickstart.
import { generateText } from 'ai';import 'dotenv/config';
async function main() { const result = await generateText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?', });
console.log(result.text);}
main().catch(console.error);Top-level parameters
The same GLM 5 Turbo request in each API format AI Gateway supports.
import { generateText } from 'ai';import 'dotenv/config';
async function main() { const result = await generateText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', system: 'You are a concise technical assistant.', prompt: 'Summarize the tradeoffs between static generation and SSR.', maxOutputTokens: 1024, });
console.log(result.text);}
main().catch(console.error);Standard parameters like prompt, messages, temperature, and tools work as documented in the AI SDK docs. These are the parameters with model-specific behavior.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
model | string | Yes | Model ID in the form creator/model, e.g. zai/glm-5-turbo. AI Gateway routes the request to an available provider. |
maxOutputTokens | number | No | Hard cap on generated tokens. GLM 5 Turbo supports up to 131,100 output tokens. Reasoning tokens count toward this limit. |
reasoning | 'provider-default' | 'none' | 'minimal' | 'low' | 'medium' | 'high' | 'xhigh' | No | Provider-agnostic reasoning effort, available in AI SDK 7 or later. Maps to the provider’s native reasoning configuration; reasoning settings under providerOptions take precedence when both are set. See the Reasoning section below. |
providerOptions | Record<string, JSONValue> | No | AI Gateway routing options under gateway, plus any provider-native options under the provider’s own namespace — see the table below. |
Input limits
| Input | Formats | Sources | Max count | Max size | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | — | — | — | — | Prompt and response share the 203K-token context window |
Provider options
Set AI Gateway routing options under providerOptions.gateway. For provider-specific options, pass them under the provider’s namespace as documented by the AI SDK.
Learn more in the AI SDK provider docs.
import { generateText } from 'ai';import 'dotenv/config';
async function main() { const result = await generateText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', prompt: 'Why is the sky blue?', providerOptions: { gateway: { only: ['zai'], }, }, });
console.log(result.text);}
main().catch(console.error);These AI Gateway routing options apply to every model. Provider-specific options pass through under the provider’s own namespace (for example providerOptions.anthropic) exactly as documented by the AI SDK.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
providerOptions.gateway.only | string[] | No | Restrict routing to these provider slugs. Requests fail over only within the listed providers. |
providerOptions.gateway.order | string[] | No | Preferred provider order. Listed providers are tried first; unlisted providers remain available as fallbacks. |
providerOptions.gateway.sort | 'cost' | 'ttft' | 'tps' | No | Rank candidate providers by price, time to first token, or tokens per second instead of the default routing order. |
providerOptions.gateway.zeroDataRetention | boolean | No | Route only to providers with a zero-data-retention policy for this model. |
Routing across providers
AI Gateway serves the same model through multiple providers and fails over automatically. order expresses a preference while keeping every provider eligible; only is a hard allowlist — if none of the listed providers are available the request fails instead of falling back.
Options under a provider's own namespace (for example providerOptions.anthropic) are forwarded to that provider with the request. Providers ignore option namespaces that don't apply to them, so it is safe to set provider options alongside gateway routing options.
Reasoning
AI Gateway bridges reasoning across every API format. The AI SDK exposes a provider-agnostic top-level reasoning level (none, minimal, low, medium, high, or xhigh); the Chat Completions and Responses formats take the same effort under reasoning.effort; and the Anthropic Messages format uses a native thinking token budget. Whichever you send, the gateway maps it to the target model’s native configuration, converting between effort levels and token budgets as needed. Reasoning-related settings under providerOptions take full precedence over the top-level reasoning value and are never merged. Reasoning tokens typically count toward your output-token usage, though how they’re reported and billed varies by provider.
Learn more in the AI Gateway reasoning guide.
import { generateText } from 'ai';import 'dotenv/config';
async function main() { const result = await generateText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', prompt: 'Explain the Monty Hall problem step by step.', reasoning: 'high', });
console.log(result.text);}
main().catch(console.error);Tool calling
Expose tools the model can call. Define each tool’s inputs with a Zod schema.
import { generateText, tool } from 'ai';import { z } from 'zod';import 'dotenv/config';
async function main() { const result = await generateText({ model: 'zai/glm-5-turbo', prompt: 'What is the weather in San Francisco?', tools: { getWeather: tool({ description: 'Get the current weather for a location', inputSchema: z.object({ location: z.string() }), execute: async ({ location }) => ({ location, temperatureC: 18 }), }), }, });
console.log(result.text);}
main().catch(console.error);Copy link to headingMore models by Z.AI
| Model |
|---|
| 1M | 0.4 s | 213 tps | $0.70/M | $2.20/M | Read$0.13/M | — |  | 09/02/2026 | ||||||
| 1M | 0.3 s | 116 tps | $0.07/M | $0.24/M | Read$0.01/M | — | +1 |   +15 | 08/26/2026 | |||||
| 1M | 0.2 s | 421 tps | $0.70/M+1 more | $2.20/M+1 more | Read$0.12/M | — |   +15 | 08/18/2026 | ||||||
| 1M | 0.5 s | 233 tps | $2.10/M | $6.60/M | Read$0.21/M | — |   | 06/23/2026 | ||||||
| 1M | 0.2 s | 553 tps | $0.70/M+1 more | $2.20/M+1 more | Read$0.11/M | — | +15 | 06/16/2026 | ||||||
| 203K | 1.1 s | 180 tps | $1/M | $3.20/M | Read$0.20/M | — |   | 02/12/2026 |
Copy link to headingAbout GLM 5 Turbo
GLM 5 Turbo was released March 15, 2026 as the speed-optimized variant in Z.AI's GLM-5 generation. The GLM-5 generation introduced selectable thinking modes so you can dial reasoning depth per request, and GLM 5 Turbo makes that capability affordable at production scale.
Agentic pipelines benefit the most. Many pipeline steps don't require the full GLM-5's deliberation depth, but they do benefit from the structured thinking modes when problems get harder. GLM 5 Turbo lets you route routine steps to a lightweight thinking mode for fast responses, then escalate harder steps to a deeper mode, all within the same model and API call format.
The turbo variant also inherits GLM-5's improved long-range planning and agentic coding capabilities. Combined with the lower per-token cost and faster throughput, this makes it practical to run multi-step agent workflows that would be prohibitively expensive at full GLM-5 pricing. Through AI Gateway, GLM 5 Turbo shares the same API surface as GLM-5.
Copy link to headingWhat To Consider When Choosing a Provider
- Configuration: GLM 5 Turbo supports multiple thinking modes like GLM-5. Match the mode to the task: lightweight modes for extraction and classification, deeper modes for multi-step reasoning. Even deeper modes run faster than the equivalent on the full GLM-5.
- Configuration: For the most complex reasoning chains, the full GLM-5 will produce higher-quality results. Benchmark both on your hardest tasks to quantify the difference.
- Configuration: Switching between GLM-5 and GLM 5 Turbo requires only changing the model identifier. No integration changes needed.
- Zero Data Retention: Zero Data Retention is offered on a per-provider and model basis. See the documentation for details.
- Authentication: AI Gateway authenticates requests using an API key or OIDC token. You do not need to manage provider credentials directly.
Copy link to headingWhen to Use GLM 5 Turbo
Best for
- High-volume agentic pipelines: Most steps need GLM-5-class capability at lower latency and cost
- Structured data extraction: Documents where speed matters as much as accuracy
- Real-time coding assistance: Fast responses improve developer productivity without sacrificing agentic capabilities
- Production deployments at scale: Per-token cost directly impacts margins
- Multi-step workflows: Fast execution steps on GLM 5 Turbo pair with complex reasoning steps on the full GLM-5
Consider alternatives when
- Maximum reasoning depth: The full GLM-5 provides the deepest deliberation in the generation on every request
- Vision or multimodal input: GLM-5V-Turbo adds image understanding to the turbo tier
- Frontend code focus: GLM-4.7 offers targeted frontend improvements at lower cost
- Absolute fastest inference: GLM-4.7-FlashX provides the lowest latency option when minimal capability is acceptable
Copy link to headingConclusion
Selectable thinking modes at production-friendly pricing make GLM 5 Turbo the practical entry point for teams adopting GLM-5 generation capabilities. Route agentic workflows through AI Gateway and scale between thinking depth levels per request.
Copy link to headingFrequently Asked Questions
How does GLM 5 Turbo compare to the full GLM-5?
GLM 5 Turbo shares GLM-5's core capabilities, including multiple thinking modes and enhanced agentic coding. It's optimized for faster inference at lower cost, with some reduction in peak reasoning depth on the most complex tasks.
Does GLM 5 Turbo support multiple thinking modes?
Yes. It retains GLM-5's multiple thinking modes, letting you select the reasoning depth per request. All modes run faster than their equivalents on the full GLM-5.
What is the context window for GLM 5 Turbo?
202.8K tokens.
Can I switch between GLM-5 and GLM 5 Turbo easily?
Yes. Both share the same API surface. Change the model identifier to switch between them without any other integration changes.
How do I authenticate with GLM 5 Turbo through AI Gateway?
AI Gateway provides a unified API key. No separate Z.AI account is needed. Use the model identifier to route requests. BYOK is also supported for direct provider access.
Is GLM 5 Turbo good for agentic coding?
Yes. It inherits GLM-5's improvements in autonomous tool use, code planning, and multi-step iteration. The faster inference makes it practical for agent loops where speed compounds across many steps.
What is the pricing for GLM 5 Turbo?
See the pricing section on this page for today's rates. AI Gateway exposes each provider's pricing for GLM 5 Turbo.