GLM Chat is a free, no-signup chat where you can talk to the current GLM models from Z.ai (formerly Zhipu AI), backed by a library of practical guides on the models, the API, pricing and coding tools. Open the free GLM chat, pick a model and start typing. There is no account to create, no card to enter and nothing to install.
This page explains what GLM Chat does, who runs it, how we test the models and keep our pages current, and how to reach us when something needs fixing.
What GLM Chat does
The chat on the homepage gives you direct access to nine model options, each one a chip you can pick with a single click. Ask two models the same question and you will quickly see how they differ in speed, depth and style.
- GLM-5.3-Flash, the default: the first natively multimodal model of the GLM-5 series. It is the only chip that accepts image uploads (JPEG, PNG or WebP, up to 4 MB).
- GLM-5.3, Z.ai’s current flagship for coding and agent work.
- GLM-5.2, the long-context model with a 1M-token window.
- GLM-5.1, built for long-horizon tasks.
- GLM-4.7, GLM-4.6 and GLM-4.5, the earlier generation, useful for comparison.
- GLM-4.7-Flash, the free model, with no daily message cap.
- GLM-Image, which turns a text prompt into an image you can download.
Every model also has its own deep link, so you can share a chat that opens on the right model. For example, chat with GLM-5.2 opens the chat with GLM-5.2 already selected.
Fair-use limits
To keep the chat free for everyone, a few limits apply to each visitor:
- 40 messages per day on the paid models (everything except GLM-4.7-Flash).
- GLM-4.7-Flash is unlimited, with a maximum of one request every 3 seconds.
- 3 generated images per day with GLM-Image.
- Up to 8,000 characters per message.
- The last 20 messages of a conversation, trimmed to 24,000 characters, are sent as context with each new message.
On very busy days the paid models can switch to GLM-4.7-Flash for the rest of the day (UTC). When that happens, the reply is labeled “GLM-4.7-Flash (daily limit reached)” so you always know which model answered, and image generation pauses until the next UTC day.
The settings behind every answer
The chat uses the same settings for every model: temperature 0.7, a maximum of 2,048 output tokens and the lightest reasoning setting each model allows. Thinking is turned off on models that support that, and GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash, where thinking is always on, run with reasoning_effort set to low. The result is fast, direct answers. If you need the deepest reasoning a model can produce, call it through the API with a higher effort level; our guide to GLM thinking mode shows how.
Your privacy in GLM Chat
You never sign in, so we never know who you are. Your conversations are saved only in your own browser (up to 30 of them), not on our server. When you send a message, our server passes it to Z.ai’s API to generate the reply and does not keep the text. What we do keep is limited to anonymous daily counters, plus a cookie with a random browser ID and a hashed IP address that enforces the limits above. The privacy policy covers every detail, and the terms of service explain the rules of use.
The guides
The chat is half of the site. The other half is a set of guides written for people who build with GLM or want to choose the right model:
- A page for every model with specs, prices, code and an FAQ, plus the GLM models comparison that puts them side by side.
- GLM pricing with worked cost examples for the API and the Coding Plan.
- Developer docs, starting with the GLM API quickstart, plus guides to function calling, rate limits, context caching and web search.
- Coding setup guides such as using GLM in Claude Code and the GLM Coding Plan explained.
- Troubleshooting for when GLM or Z.ai is not working, and the GLM release timeline.
Every number on these pages comes from an official source: Z.ai’s documentation at docs.z.ai, the Z.ai blog, the zai-org repositories on GitHub and the model cards and license files on Hugging Face. For competitors we use their own pricing pages. If a figure is not published by an official source, it does not appear on GLM Chat.
Who runs GLM Chat
GLM Chat is operated by Thinkly for Digital Business. The pages are written and maintained by the GLM Chat Team, which also runs the model tests and handles corrections.
Independent site, not affiliated with Z.ai / Zhipu AI. GLM is their trademark. The models you talk to here are Z.ai’s, reached through Z.ai’s official API; the guides, test results and recommendations are our own work. For anything tied to your Z.ai account, API keys or subscription, go to Z.ai directly. Our list of official Z.ai website links shows where each service lives.
How we test models
Six of the chat models (GLM-5.3, GLM-5.3-Flash, GLM-5.2, GLM-5.1, GLM-4.7 and GLM-4.7-Flash) go through the same five fixed tasks in our own test harness, three times each: a streaming CSV deduplication function in Python, a debounce function with unit tests in JavaScript, a refactor of a deliberately messy PHP function, a 150-word explanation of transformer attention for a beginner, and a JSON extraction from a messy product description. The harness uses the same settings as the public chat, so the results reflect what you get when you type here.
Every answer is scored from 0 to 2 against a published rubric, with the code run automatically and each explanation read by an editor. The published score for each task is the median of its three runs, for a maximum of 10 per model. The results appear on each model page and on comparison pages such as GLM vs DeepSeek, together with the number of runs and the date the battery ran. The exact prompts, the rubric and the checks for each task are in our editorial policy.
How we keep pages current
Z.ai moves fast. In 2026 alone it shipped GLM-5 in February, GLM-5.1 in April, GLM-5.2 in June, then GLM-5.3 and GLM-5.3-Flash in August: a new flagship roughly every two months. Prices, model routing and API parameters change along the way.
When Z.ai releases a model, changes a price or changes how a model behaves, we update every page the change touches: the model page, the pricing page, the comparison hub, the changelog and any guide that uses the affected setting. Two recent examples show why this matters. On the Coding Plan, requests for GLM-5.2 and GLM-5.1 now route to GLM-5.3. And GLM-5.3 no longer accepts a request that disables thinking, so code that sends "disabled" must switch to "enabled" with a low effort level. Both changes appear on every page that covers those models.
Official documentation always wins. If one of our pages disagrees with docs.z.ai, trust docs.z.ai and let us know so we can fix our page.
How the site is funded
GLM Chat is free and is funded by advertising served through Google AdSense. Advertisers have no say in what we write, which models we recommend or how we score them.
Contact
Found a wrong number, a broken link or a chat problem? Email info@glm-ai.chat. For corrections, include the page URL and the official source that shows the right figure. The contact page lists what we can and cannot help with.
The fastest way to see what GLM Chat does is to use it: open the free GLM chat and ask GLM-5.3-Flash your first question.