Cheaper AI than DeepSeek, shaking up the market

(NLDO) - Startup Z.ai has just announced a new AI model called GLM-4.5, which has a lower usage cost than DeepSeek.

According to CNBC , Chinese technology companies are continuously launching smarter artificial intelligence (AI) models with increasingly lower usage costs.

Specifically, startup Z.ai (formerly Zhipu) recently announced a new AI model called GLM-4.5 and claimed that the cost of using this AI is lower than DeepSeek.

Ability to do it yourself

Unlike many current AI models, GLM-4.5 is built in the direction of AI with "agentic" characteristics , which means it has the ability to automatically divide a task into many sub-steps to perform more effectively.

Notably, with open source , this model allows developers to download and use it for free.

According to Z.ai CEO Zhang Peng, GLM-4.5 is half the size of DeepSeek's model and only requires eight Nvidia H20 chips to run. Mr. Zhang affirmed that Z.ai still has enough computing power, does not need to buy more chips and will announce the cost of training the model later.

Z.ai's GLM-4.5 is built in the direction of AI that can automatically break down a task into many sub-steps to perform more efficiently. Source: CNBC

Previously, in January 2025, DeepSeek surprised global investors when it developed an AI model capable of overcoming US chip restrictions , competing with OpenAI's ChatGPT in both performance and cost.

DeepSeek claims the cost of training the V3 model was only about $6 million , although some analysts say this figure does not take into account the more than $500 million hardware investment.

As for Z.ai, the startup said that with GLM-4.5, they will collect 11 cents (equivalent to 87 VND) for every million tokens input , 28 cents (equivalent to 223 VND) for every million tokens output - much cheaper than the 14 cents (111 VND) input and $2.19 (nearly 57,500 VND) output of DeepSeek R1.

Z.ai, founded in 2019, is preparing for an IPO. According to PitchBook, the company has raised more than $1.5 billion from major investors such as Alibaba, Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners , as well as Aramco's Prosperity7 Ventures and several investment funds.

Recently, Moonshot, an Alibaba-backed company, also launched Kimi K2, claiming to surpass ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude in some programming capabilities. Kimi K2 is priced at 15 cents per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ai-moi-cua-trung-quoc-gay-chan-dong-thi-truong-re-hon-ca-deepseek-196250729175306326.htm