Z.ai
Zhipu AI's GLM model family and chat product, with a very cheap coding plan.
why this verdict
Keep paying — Anthropic has not replaced it
Anthropic's version overlaps, but does not finish the AI assistants job, so this one still earns its $3/mo.
- A named launch, not a vibe named, unlinked
- Frontier labs cutting prices and shipping coding agents bundled into subscriptions. Anthropic, February 10, 2026 — no announcement link recorded yet.
- How much of the job it covers not the job editorial call
- Parts of it. The job still needs the tool to get finished.
- Is there a free way to do it? yes
- 3 of 3 listed replacements have a usable free tier: DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi.
- What the call is worth $36/yr
- $3/mo at the entry paid tier — $36 a year per seat.
- Threatened by
- Anthropic
- Since
- February 10, 2026
- List price
- $3/mo
- Per year
- $36
The backstory
Z.ai, the international face of Zhipu AI, made itself relevant to Western developers with GLM coding models sold at a fraction of frontier prices and usable inside existing agent tools. The strategy is straightforward undercutting: capable enough for most coding work at a price that makes the incumbent's subscription feel expensive. It works well in the open-source agent ecosystem where model choice is a config line, and runs into procurement resistance the moment an enterprise security review begins.
Escape hatches
Similar price positioning with strong reasoning
deepseek.com open_in_newBroad open-weight family with good coding variants
qwen.ai open_in_newLong-context models with an agentic focus
kimi.com open_in_new3 of 3 replacements have a usable free tier.