Zhipu AI raises prices for GLM-5 and coding plan due to increased demand and rising costs

Zhipu AI has significantly increased the prices for its GLM-5 model internationally and for its GLM Coding Plan, marking the first major price hike among Chinese large language models in 2026. The price adjustments, effective February 12, include the elimination of first-time purchase discounts, a general package price increase of over 30%, and a more substantial increase for the international version (30%-60% for subscriptions, 67%-100% for API usage). The company attributes these increases to surging demand for its programming assistance services, leading to high infrastructure load, and rising operational costs, including computing power acquisition and model optimization. This move is seen as a shift in the Chinese AI industry from a price-competition phase to one focused on quality and sustainable growth, with other major Chinese LLM providers also implementing price adjustments.