Inkling vs GLM 5.3

GLM 5.3 leads llmrun Score 130.1 to 116.0; neither fits 24 GB.

Model A · Thinking Machines

Inkling

116.0llmrun Score

952.4B · 18.1B active · Apache 2.0 · Jul 2026

VisionChatFunctions

Model B · Z.ai

GLM 5.3

130.1llmrun Score

753.3B · 41.8B active · 1M context · Other · Aug 2026

ChatFunctions

Which should you choose?

Choose Inkling if you want…

Also does vision
GLM 5.3 doesn't list it
More permissive license
Apache 2.0 vs Other

Choose GLM 5.3 if you want…

Higher llmrun Score
130.1 vs 116.0
Stronger at agents
133.4 vs 111.4
Stronger at coding
130.1 vs 110.2
Ahead on the benchmarks
20 of 22 shared boards
Lighter on memory
456.2 vs 572.1 GB at Q4_K_M

On your hardware

Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.

MemoryInklingGLM 5.3

8 GB

RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

12 GB

RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

16 GB

RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

24 GBreference

RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

32 GB

RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

48 GB

RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 32 GB

Mac Mini M4 · Macs

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 64 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Mac 128 GB

Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs

Inkling

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 408.4 GB

GLM 5.3

Doesn't fit

smallest quant needs 256 GB

Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).

llmrun Score

with its 90% range · bars share one scale

Inkling GLM 5.3

Overall

Inkling

116.0114–118

GLM 5.3

130.1128–132

Coding

Inkling

110.2105–115

GLM 5.3

130.1124–136

Agents

Inkling

111.4102–120

GLM 5.3

133.4130–137

Math

Inkling

112.1107–117

GLM 5.3

128.6126–131

Science

Inkling

116.4106–127

GLM 5.3

130.8119–143

Reasoning

Inkling

121.0118–124

GLM 5.3

130.1124–136

Inkling · #18 of 100 open models · #15 of 96 that fit ≤640 GB

GLM 5.3 · #4 of 100 open models · #3 of 96 that fit ≤512 GB

Benchmarks

22 shared boards: Inkling leads 1, GLM 5.3 leads 20 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026

BoardInklingGLM 5.3

GPQA Diamond

Inkling

88.3%#14/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

90.9%#7/98 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LiveBench Coding

Inkling

71.0#14/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

GLM 5.3

79.0#4/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

LiveBench Reasoning

Inkling

78.3#14/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

GLM 5.3

85.8#7/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

AIME 2024/2025

Inkling

88.9%#17/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

91.1%#13/86 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

FrontierMath

Inkling

33.3%#15/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

68.8%#3/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LiveBench Math

Inkling

88.4#7/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

GLM 5.3

87.9#8/19 open

IndependentLiveBench · Jun 2026

SciCode

Inkling

47.0%#18/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

59.0%#3/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

SimpleQA

Inkling

40.3%#8/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

41.0%#6/17 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

FrontierMath Tier 4

Inkling

4.9%#12/13 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

29.3%#4/13 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

WeirdML

Inkling

32.3%#37/46 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

75.4%#2/46 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

25 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)

FrontierCode

Inkling

14.0%#11/12 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

40.1%#3/12 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ALE-Bench

Inkling

946.0#11/43 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

1317.4#3/43 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

APEX-Agents

Inkling

33.8%#12/16 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

56.6%#2/16 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

Chess Puzzles

Inkling

21.0%#7/14 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

37.0%#4/14 open

IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2026

CritPt

Inkling

5.4%#16/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

19.1%#4/66 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

DTBench

Inkling

87.5%#13/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

87.7%#11/68 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

FrontierSWE

Inkling

4.1%#4/4 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

30.2%#1/4 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LiveBench 2026 Coding

Inkling

64.0#9/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

82.8#3/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LiveBench 2026 Long-Horizon

Inkling

14.1#11/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

35.9#5/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LiveBench 2026 Reasoning

Inkling

78.3#9/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

85.8#4/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LMCA

Inkling

37.6%#11/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

55.5%#1/54 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

ProofBench

Inkling

0.0%#26/26 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Jul 2026

GLM 5.3

49.0%#8/26 open

Lab-reportedEpoch AI · Aug 2026

LMArena Text

Inkling

1440.9#20/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

GLM 5.3

1478.5#3/187 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LMArena WebDev

Inkling

1413.7#26/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

GLM 5.3

1621.1#6/52 open

ArenaLMArena · Oct 2026

LiveBench 2026 Browser

Inkling

16.0#8/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

0.0#15/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LiveBench 2026 Data Analysis

Inkling

72.8#8/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

70.2#10/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LiveBench 2026 Design

Inkling

58.3#14/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

77.3#2/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

LiveBench 2026 Research

Inkling

59.9#11/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

GLM 5.3

73.2#6/15 open

IndependentLiveBench · Sep 2026

Only Inkling (3)

Only GLM 5.3 (4)

VRAM by quantization

Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.

QuantInklingGLM 5.3

Q2_K

Inkling

405 GB~404.8 GB file

32K 412 GB · 128K 432 GB

GLM 5.3

324 GB~320.2 GB file

32K 323 GB · 128K 332 GB

Q3_K_M

Inkling

465 GB~464.3 GB file

32K 471 GB · 128K 491 GB

GLM 5.3

371 GB~367.3 GB file

32K 370 GB · 128K 379 GB

Q4_K_M

Inkling

572 GB~571.4 GB file

32K 578 GB · 128K 598 GB

GLM 5.3

456 GB~452.0 GB file

32K 455 GB · 128K 464 GB

Q5_K_M

Inkling

679 GB~678.6 GB file

32K 686 GB · 128K 705 GB

GLM 5.3

541 GB~536.8 GB file

32K 540 GB · 128K 549 GB

Q6_K

Inkling

786 GB~785.7 GB file

32K 793 GB · 128K 813 GB

GLM 5.3

626 GB~621.5 GB file

32K 625 GB · 128K 634 GB

Q8_0

Inkling

953 GB856.8 GB file

32K 959 GB · 128K 979 GB

GLM 5.3

758 GB801.4 GB file

32K 757 GB · 128K 765 GB

4 more quants

IQ2_M

Inkling

not listed

GLM 5.3

258 GB238.6 GB file

32K 257 GB · 128K 266 GB

IQ3_XXS

Inkling

not listed

GLM 5.3

296 GB281.7 GB file

32K 295 GB · 128K 304 GB

IQ4_XS

Inkling

not listed

GLM 5.3

409 GB365.3 GB file

32K 408 GB · 128K 417 GB

BF16

Inkling

1905 GB1894.3 GB file

32K 1912 GB · 128K 1932 GB

GLM 5.3

1511 GB1508.0 GB file

32K 1510 GB · 128K 1519 GB

How to run each

Inkling

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/inkling-GGUF

All ways to run Inkling →

GLM 5.3

Ollama · Q4_K_M

$ollama run hf.co/unsloth/GLM-5.3-GGUF

All ways to run GLM 5.3 →

Specifications

Specifications of Inkling and GLM 5.3
Spec	Inkling	GLM 5.3
Publisher	Thinking Machines	Z.ai
Parameters	952.4B	753.3B
Active parameters	18B per token	42B per token
Architecture	InklingForConditionalGeneration	GlmMoeDsaForCausalLM
Context	—	1M tokens
Modalities	Vision, Chat, Function-calling	Chat, Function-calling
License	Apache 2.0	Other
Released	Jul 2026	Aug 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, Inkling or GLM 5.3?

GLM 5.3 leads llmrun Score 130.1 to 116.0; neither fits 24 GB. Choose Inkling for also does vision and more permissive license; choose GLM 5.3 for higher llmrun Score and stronger at agents.

Which needs less VRAM, Inkling or GLM 5.3?

At Q4_K_M, Inkling requires 572.1 GB while GLM 5.3 needs 456.2 GB, making GLM 5.3 the easier model to run on your local setup.

Can I run Inkling or GLM 5.3 on a 16 GB GPU?

Inkling does not fit (smallest quant needs 408.4 GB); GLM 5.3 does not fit (smallest quant needs 256 GB).