On February 11, 2026, Beijing-based AI giant Z.ai (formerly Zhipu AI) officially released GLM-5, its next-generation flagship foundation model.
Positioned as a major leap from “Vibe Coding” to “Agentic Engineering,” GLM-5 is designed to move beyond simple code generation to autonomous system construction and long-horizon task execution. Notably, the model has been released as an open-weight model under the MIT License, making it the most powerful open-source competitor to proprietary models like Claude 4.5 and GPT-5.2
Technical Specifications & Architecture
GLM-5 represents a massive scaling effort compared to its predecessor, GLM-4.7, utilizing a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture to balance power with efficiency.
| Feature | GLM-5 Specification |
| Total Parameters | 744 Billion |
| Active Parameters | 40 Billion (per token) |
| Pre-training Data | 28.5 Trillion tokens |
| Context Window | 200,000 Tokens (200K) |
| Max Output Tokens | 128,000 Tokens (128K) |
| Key Tech | DeepSeek Sparse Attention (DSA) & Multi-Token Prediction (MTP) |
Key Breakthroughs: Agentic Engineering
The model’s primary focus is “Agentic Engineering,” where the AI acts as a reliable colleague rather than just a chat assistant.
- End-to-End Deliverables: GLM-5 can turn high-level source materials directly into production-ready documents like .docx, .pdf, and .xlsx. In Agent Mode, it can handle multi-turn collaboration to build entire project PRDs or financial reports autonomously.
- Deep Reasoning & Debugging: It features a “Thinking Mode” (similar to OpenAI’s o-series) that allows it to pause and reason through complex backend architecture and stubborn logic bugs before responding.
- Infrastructure Reliability: It is compatible with major agentic frameworks like Claude Code, OpenClaw, and Kilo Code, allowing developers to swap it into existing enterprise stacks.
Benchmark Performance
Z.ai’s internal evaluations show GLM-5 rivaling—and in some cases surpassing—closed-source frontier models in specialized domains.
| Benchmark | GLM-5 Score | Comparison |
| SWE-bench Verified | 77.8% | Surpasses Gemini 3 Pro (76.2%) |
| AIME 2026 I | 92.7% | Leading open-source reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 56.2 | Best-in-class open-model agent score |
| GPQA-Diamond | 86.0% | Exceptional expert-level reasoning |
Availability & Access
Z.ai is rolling out GLM-5 across various platforms to ensure both developers and casual users can access the new capabilities.
- For Developers:
- Weights: Available for download on Hugging Face and ModelScope (MIT License).
- API: Live on
api.z.aiandBigModel.cn. - Local Deployment: Supported via vLLM and SGLang (with specific optimizations for Blackwell and Hopper GPUs).
- For Users:
- GLM Coding Plan: Paid subscribers ($10/month) get priority access and higher quotas for use in tools like Cursor and Cline.
- Z.ai Web/App: You can try the model for free in the new “Agent Mode” on the official website.
The “Pony Alpha” Connection
Before the official launch, a mysterious model codenamed “Pony Alpha” had been topping community leaderboards and baffling Silicon Valley researchers. With this release, Z.ai confirmed that Pony Alpha was, in fact, the internal testing name for GLM-5.+1
