SQL · 6 checks · max 500 tokens · benched 2026-09-16

GLM 5.3 vs GLM 5.2 vs GLM 5.3 Flash on top five customers by 2025 spend

Z Ai models side by side on "Top five customers by 2025 spend": GLM 5.3 Flash scores 10/10; GLM 5.3 Flash is the cheapest answer scoring 8+ at $0.03 per 1,000 runs. Outputs, checks, judge reasons, latency and cost.

The prompt every model received

System

You are a database engineer. Reply with a single SQL statement and nothing else.

User

Tables: customers(id, name) and orders(id, customer_id, amount, ordered_at). Write one standard SQL query that returns each customer's name and their total order amount for calendar year 2025, highest total first, limited to the top 5. Use a JOIN, GROUP BY and ORDER BY.

Rubric for the judge: Correct join and aggregate, filters ordered_at to 2025, sorts descending, limits to 5, portable SQL.

Side by side

Every cell is one OpenRouter call at temperature 0 with the prompt's token cap and reasoning effort "low" where the model supports it. Cost is usage × the catalogue rate in models.json. Quality is one judge call to anthropic/claude-haiku-4.5 against the prompt's rubric, cached per prompt version.

GLM 5.3

z-ai/glm-5.3

9/10

Latency: 275ms
Cost: $0.00043
Per 1,000: $0.43

92 in · 69 out · 34 words · checks 6/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount FROM customers c JOIN orders o ON o.customer_id = c.id WHERE o.ordered_at >= DATE '2025-01-01' AND o.ordered_at < DATE '2026-01-01' GROUP BY c.name ORDER BY total_amount DESC LIMIT 5;

Judge: Query correctly implements JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, and LIMIT with proper 2025 date filtering; minor deduction only because GROUP BY should ideally include c.id to be fully standard-compliant across all SQL dialects, though this works in most modern systems.

GLM 5.2

z-ai/glm-5.2

9/10

Latency: 448ms
Cost: $0.00026
Per 1,000: $0.26

92 in · 100 out (31 reasoning) · 34 words · checks 6/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount FROM customers c JOIN orders o ON c.id = o.customer_id WHERE o.ordered_at >= DATE '2025-01-01' AND o.ordered_at < DATE '2026-01-01' GROUP BY c.name ORDER BY total_amount DESC LIMIT 5;

Judge: Query correctly uses JOIN, GROUP BY, ORDER BY, and LIMIT 5 with proper 2025 date filtering; minor deduction because GROUP BY should ideally include c.id to be fully standard-compliant, though c.name alone works in most SQL dialects.

GLM 5.3 Flash

z-ai/glm-5.3-flash

10/10

top judge scorecheapest scoring 8+

Latency: 687ms
Cost: $2.6e-5
Per 1,000: $0.03

92 in · 75 out · 33 words · checks 6/6

regex
regex
regex
regex
regex
contains

SELECT c.name, SUM(o.amount) AS total_amount
FROM customers c
JOIN orders o ON o.customer_id = c.id
WHERE o.ordered_at >= '2025-01-01' AND o.ordered_at < '2026-01-01'
GROUP BY c.id, c.name
ORDER BY total_amount DESC
LIMIT 5;

Judge: Query correctly joins customers and orders, filters 2025 using date range, groups by customer with proper aggregation, orders descending by total, limits to 5, and uses portable standard SQL syntax.

Frequently asked

What does this prompt test?

SQL: Correct join and aggregate, filters ordered_at to 2025, sorts descending, limits to 5, portable SQL. The deterministic checks are regex, regex, regex, regex, regex, contains.

Which model should I pick for this task?

If the judge's bar of 8/10 is good enough for you, GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.03 per 1,000 runs. If you need the top score, GLM 5.3 Flash at $0.03 per 1,000 runs.

Same prompt, other families

Run it yourself

Re-run this prompt on Z Ai with your own OpenRouter key, or tweak the wording and see what changes.