When Is GLM 5.3 Coming Out? Release Date & Availability
Quick answer: GLM 5.3 already launched on August 14, 2026 — it's live right now on the GLM Coding Plan (all subscribers auto-upgraded) and ZCode. The API is rolling out now, and open weights are expected on HuggingFace ~2 weeks after launch (late August), pending safety evaluation.
TL;DR
| Availability | Status |
|---|---|
| Official release | ✅ August 14, 2026 |
| GLM Coding Plan | ✅ Live (all users upgraded) |
| ZCode | ✅ Live |
API (glm-5.3) | ⏳ Rolling out now |
| Open weights | 📅 ~2 weeks after launch (late August) |
| OpenRouter | ⏳ Not listed yet (z-ai/glm-5.2 is newest) |
GLM 5.3 Is Already Out
If you've been waiting for GLM 5.3: it shipped on August 14, 2026 — no more waiting for the launch itself. Z.AI announced it with a technical post titled "GLM-5.3: Frontier Coding with Emergent Cyber Capabilities" and made it available the same day.
What you get in the release:
- Same base model as GLM 5.2 — all gains from post-training (no new pretraining).
- +50% coding on Z.AI's internal code bench; Terminal-Bench 3.0 4.6 → 28.3 (open-weights SOTA).
- CyberGym 84.5 — best public vulnerability-discovery result, ahead of GPT-5.6 Sol (83.6).
- 2,436 real-world vulnerabilities found across 269 projects.
What's Available Now vs. Later
✅ Now
- GLM Coding Plan — Lite $18/mo, Pro $80/mo, Max $168/mo (annual −30%). All subscribers were upgraded to GLM 5.3 on launch day. Off-peak hours (outside 14:00–18:00 UTC+8 weekdays) cost 50% of standard points.
- ZCode — Z.AI's coding agent with Goal mode, 98%+ cache hits, and a 1.5× quota boost through August 31.
⏳ Rolling out
- API — model id
glm-5.3, priced $1.40/$4.40 per 1M tokens (same as 5.2). Endpoints already published; watch for general availability.
📅 Late August
- Open weights — HuggingFace release ~2 weeks after launch, gated on safety evaluation and hardening (the cyber capability is dual-use).
If You're Asking "Should I Wait for 5.3?"
You don't need to. The fastest path to GLM 5.3 right now:
- Subscribe to the Coding Plan — you're on 5.3 immediately.
- Or use ZCode — agent-native access with the Aug 31 quota boost.
- For product builders — watch for the API to go fully public; pricing is confirmed at $1.40/$4.40.
If you specifically want weights (self-hosting), that's the one thing still on a timeline — late August, safety permitting.
Migration Reminder (When You Switch)
GLM 5.3 requires thinking enabled — thinking.type: "disabled" no longer works:
{
"model": "glm-5.3",
"thinking": { "type": "enabled" },
"reasoning_effort": "max"
}
reasoning_effort: low / high / max (default max, recommended for coding).
FAQ
When is GLM 5.3 coming out? It already launched — August 14, 2026. Live on the Coding Plan and ZCode; API rolling out; weights expected late August.
Is GLM 5.3 available now? Yes — via GLM Coding Plan (auto-upgraded) and ZCode. The API is rolling out; OpenRouter doesn't list it yet.
When do GLM 5.3 weights release? ~2 weeks after launch (late August), pending safety evaluation and hardening.
How much is GLM 5.3? API: $1.40/$4.40 per 1M tokens. Coding Plan: $18/$80/$168 per month.
What changed from GLM 5.2?
Thinking is always enabled (reasoning_effort low/high/max); coding +50%; Terminal-Bench 3.0 4.6 → 28.3; CyberGym SOTA.
Sources
- Z.AI: GLM-5.3: Frontier Coding with Emergent Cyber Capabilities (August 14, 2026)
- Z.AI Docs: GLM-5.3
Last updated: August 18, 2026
