GLM 4.6: A Budget AI Coding Model That Actually Delivers

Hi everyone. Claude is an excellent coding assistant, but its weekly limits can run out much faster than you expect. But now there's an option that claims to fix this. GLM4.6 offering performance close to Sonnet for just $3 a month. In this video, I'll break down what GLM 4.6 actually is. Test its real coding performance. So here's the GLM coding plan page. The first thing they highlight is this. Powered by a top tier coding model, GLM 4.6 isn't just another open-source model. It's currently one of the strongest coding models available. It's built for real developer workloads, advanced reasoning, multifile coding, and agent style tasks. And you can see that in the chart on the right. GLM 4.6 performs almost at the same level as Claude Sonnet. and it even scores higher than GPT 5.1 on the code arena leaderboard. The message is clear. This model isn't just hype. It's strong enough to replace a lot of the tools developers already use today. Next, they highlight that GLM works smoothly across your entire dev setup. It supports 10 plus popular AI coding tools including claude code, rue code, kilo code, clin, open code, cursor, and more. The nice part is you don't have to change your workflow. You just switch the provider inside your existing tool, sign in with your GLM account, and you're ready to code. It's basically plugandplay, no matter which editor or AI assistant you're already using. And the setup is simple because GLM provides clean step-by-step docs for each tool. You are ready to use GLM inside whichever editor you prefer. Now, this part is honestly one of the biggest selling points, the pricing. GLM gives you high quotas with developerfriendly pricing. Plans start at just $3 per month, and for that price, you actually get up to three times the usage of a similar Claude plan. If you look at the chart, Claude's coding plan costs around $20, while GLM gives you more usage for only $3, basically 17th of the price. So, if you're a developer who wants strong performance without burning cash every month, this pricing is tough to beat. GLM also includes free MCP tools like web search, web reader, and vision analysis. These tools add extra capabilities out of the box with more on the way. The light plan is the main highlight. Just $3 per month, powered by GLM 4.6, and it gives you three times the usage of Claude's Pro plan. If you need more speed and higher limits, the Pro plan at $15 builds on light with five times usage and faster performance. For usage limits, the light plan gives you around 120 prompts every 5 hours, which is about three times more than Claude Pro. If you need more room, the ProPlan increases that to 600 prompts every 5 hours. Now, let me show you the GLM 4.6 platform. And this part is really cool. The whole platform is free to use. You only pay if you need the API. It has a bunch of features, AI sliders to create PowerPoint slides and tools that can build full stack apps like Lovable or Bolt. But here, it's free. Just type your prompt, hit submit, and it generates all the code for you. If you want to watch the full video on this platform, I've already posted it. The link is in the description. Next, I'll show you how to use the GLM 4.6 API inside Kilo Code. You do not pay anything extra. If you choose GLM as the provider, you only pay the $3 API plan. First, make sure you install the Kilo code extension in your editor. After that, open the kilo code settings. Select your profile and choose GLM AI as the provider. Then pick the international endpoint and paste your API key. Finally, choose the GLM 4.6 model. I already have a NextJS project set up. This project is for developer quick tools and I've built more than 20 tools inside it. Now I want to add one more tool, an API caller similar to Postman under the utilities menu. This is my prompt. I want a Postman style API tester tool that can also generate copyable code snippets for fetch, Axios, and Python requests. Now I'm going to submit this prompt. GLM has started working. And here is the to-do list it generated. Now we just need to wait a few seconds for it to finish. GLM has completed all the work. Now let's check the result. This is the tool it created in one shot. Here we can choose the API method and enter the URL. It also provides sample APIs and you can replace them if you want. Next, we can add headers and parameters for the API call. Here you can see we got a status 200 and the full API response is shown. Everything is copyable. It also generates code snippets automatically. If you call an invalid API, it gives the correct 404 status. And the post method works too. I added a sample endpoint and body data and it returned a 2011 created response. Everything is working perfectly. GLM 4.6 is powerful. If you want strong coding features without high monthly costs, this is the model to try. GLM 4.6 gives you top tier coding power at one of the cheapest prices in the market. For just $3, you get performance that most premium tools don't offer. Getting this level of performance at such an affordable rate is honestly rare. If you're on a budget and want a cost-effective solution, GLM is a great choice. Finally, all Z.A.I. services run from Singapore and they don't store any of your prompts, images, or generated content. So, your data stays private while you use the platform. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video.