Head to head
GLM-5.2 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
Which is better, GLM-5.2 or DeepSeek V4 Pro?
GLM-5.2 finishes ahead of DeepSeek V4 Pro on the index, 87.1 to 83.4, and leads on all four scores: craft, speed, control and value. Both are scored on the same rubric, in the same week, and neither placing is sponsored.
Updated
GLM-5.2
13 of 73
87.1
Still the GLM to choose when the licence matters most: MIT, a million tokens, no conditions.
DeepSeek V4 Pro
28 of 73
83.4
DeepSeek's reasoning flagship, now out of preview and outscored by its own Flash model.
The four scores, side by side
| Score | GLM-5.2 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craft | 84 | 82 | +2 |
| Speed | 82 | 74 | +8 |
| Control | 95 | 94 | +1 |
| Value | 92 | 84 | +8 |
| Index score | 87.1 | 83.4 | +3.7 |
Which to pick
GLM-5.2 is the safer pick on every axis we score. DeepSeek V4 Pro earns its place in the index, but nothing in these four numbers argues for it over GLM-5.2.
GLM-5.2
GLM-5.2 made the open-versus-closed argument concrete in the summer: close to the closed flagships on coding and reasoning, a million tokens of context, and weights under MIT with no user threshold or field-of-use clause. GLM-5.3 has since improved on it, but under Zhipu's own licence rather than MIT, which keeps 5.2 relevant for anyone who needs the plainest possible terms on a model this capable. You can run it, tune it and ship it without sending a byte to anyone.
Where it shines
- MIT licence with no user-count or field-of-use restrictions
- Million-token context on weights you can hold yourself
- Shares its base model with the stronger GLM-5.3
DeepSeek V4 Pro
V4 Pro left preview in August as V4-Pro-0813: a very large sparse model that thinks before it answers, with MIT-licensed weights and a million-token window. It is still good on hard reasoning, but V4.1 Flash, built on DeepSeek's newer architecture, now scores higher on both independent leaderboards at about a quarter of the price. Pro remains a capable MIT-licensed reasoning model, but for most new work Flash is the better buy.
Where it shines
- MIT licence, including for the reasoning traces
- Very long context, so whole repositories fit in one call
- Off-peak pricing halves the bill