Domestic large models continue their assault on GPT/Opus — Zhipu's GLM-5.3 is about to be released: an epic Plus-level upgrade.

Following Kimi K3 and DeepSeek V4 Flash-0731, domestic large models are about to usher in another round of upgrades, and this time it's Zhipu making the move, with the GLM-5.3 large model set to arrive soon.

In fact, GLM-5.3 had already been leaked a couple of days ago, briefly appearing on GitHub and Zhipu's official website before being quickly taken down, indicating that Zhipu is ready and just waiting for the right release moment.

This afternoon, Zhipu founder Tang Jie once again confirmed on X in response to netizens that GLM-5.3 will be released very soon, though no specific timeline was given — all we know is that it's coming soon.

There was previously talk that GLM-5.3 might be renamed GLM-5.5, but as it stands now, it will continue the naming progression from GLM-5.2 without any major leap. However, the scale of this upgrade won't be small — Tang Jie previously mentioned that the new version's upgrade magnitude is "epic-level plus," setting expectations very high.

Zhipu launched GLM-5.2 this year, which was not only Zhipu's strongest open-source large model at the time, but also the first domestic large model to match the programming capabilities of leading American models. It currently scores 52 points on Artificial Analysis, slightly ahead of V4 Flash among domestic models and behind Kimi K3.

Based on an "epic-level plus" improvement, if GLM-5.3 can gain around 5 points, it would reach K3's level, and if it exceeds a 5-point gain, it could take aim at GPT-5.6 and Opus 5.

Considering that GLM-5.3 is reportedly set to increase from GLM-5.2's 740+ billion parameters to over a trillion, combined with Zhipu's widely recognized strong post-training capabilities, there is real hope for GLM-5.3 to break the 60-point mark.

As for the specific release date, my personal guess is that Zhipu may be waiting for DeepSeek V4 Pro's official version to make the first move — because on the day V4 Flash-0731 was released, Zhipu happened to announce a major price increase for GLM-5.2, with subscription prices going up two to three times. That move was immediately upstaged by the ultra cost-effective V4 Flash, drawing ridicule across the internet.

Now that DeepSeek has announced price increases of its own, and by a considerable margin, the pressure on GLM-5.3 will be somewhat reduced. If its performance surpasses the official V4 Pro, Zhipu can reclaim its standing this time; otherwise, it will once again find itself on the back foot against V4 Pro.