Z.ai GLM-5

GLM-5.3 hardware requirements

Needs at least 4 GPUs at FP8 (Instinct MI350X OAM). For 1,000 tokens/s at 32k context you need 16 x H100 SXM5 80GB at $28.64/hr or 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $8.00/hr.

Parameters
753B
Active per token
41.7B
mixture of experts
KV cache per token
88 KB
16-bit cache
Native precision
FP8

Bare minimum

Fewest GPUs
4 x Instinct MI350X OAM
FP8, 4,096 tokens, one stream
Tokens/s
514
Per hour
$24.64
Per million tokens
$13.32
Memory used
68%
Rent on DigitalOcean
Cheapest per hour
16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition
FP8, 4,096 tokens, one stream, live price
Tokens/s
384
Per hour
$8.00
Per million tokens
$5.79
Memory used
51%
Rent on RunPod
Cheapest per million tokens
16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition
FP8, 32,768 tokens, 32 streams
Tokens/s
3.8k
Per hour
$8.00
Per million tokens
$0.59
Memory used
58%
Rent on RunPod

Configurations

Every datacenter GPU in the catalog, sized for these settings. Change precision, context and concurrency and the whole page follows. Each point is one replica: the smallest tensor-parallel group of that GPU that holds the model.

Vendor

4 x GB300 NVL72 GPU 288GB: 5.1k tokens/s per replica at $34.48/hr.8 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 9.6k tokens/s per replica at $84.00/hr.4 x Instinct MI350X OAM: 5.1k tokens/s per replica at $24.64/hr.4 x B300 SXM 262GB: 5.1k tokens/s per replica at $29.60/hr.8 x B200 SXM 180GB: 9.2k tokens/s per replica at $32.72/hr.4 x Instinct MI325X OAM: 3.8k tokens/s per replica at $15.20/hr.8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB: 6.4k tokens/s per replica at $19.12/hr.8 x H200 SXM 141GB: 5.8k tokens/s per replica at $23.92/hr.16 x H100 SXM5 80GB: 7.1k tokens/s per replica at $28.64/hr.8 x H200 NVL 141GB: 5.8k tokens/s per replica at $30.32/hr.16 x H100 NVL 94GB: 8.3k tokens/s per replica at $51.04/hr.16 x H100 PCIe 80GB: 4.2k tokens/s per replica at $40.00/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition: 3.8k tokens/s per replica at $28.80/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition: 3.4k tokens/s per replica at $9.44/hr.16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition: 3.8k tokens/s per replica at $8.00/hr.16 x A100 PCIe 80GB: 4.1k tokens/s per replica at $21.60/hr.16 x A100 SXM4 80GB: 4.3k tokens/s per replica at $22.40/hr.

Priced configurations only; 14 more fit without a live price and appear in the table. Marker size grows with the tensor-parallel width. Roofline estimates.

GPUTPTokens/s
4 ~15k Specs
4 14k Specs
4 5.1k Specs
4 5.1k Rent
8 9.6k Rent
4 5.1k Rent
4 5.1k Rent
8 9.2k Rent
8 9.6k Specs
4 3.8k Rent
8 6.4k Rent
Biren logo
BR100 2 nodes
16 ~3.4k Specs
8 5.8k Rent
16 7.1k Rent
8 ~3.9k Specs
8 ~5.8k Rent
H100 NVL 94GB 2 nodes
16 ~8.3k Rent
16 4.2k Rent
16 4.2k Specs
16 3.8k Rent
16 ~3.4k Rent
16 3.8k Rent
8 ~3.9k Specs
8 ~3.9k Specs
16 ~4.1k Specs
16 ~4.1k Rent
16 ~4.3k Rent
16 ~2.8k Specs
16 ~3.5k Specs
8 4.8k Specs
H20 96GB 2 nodes
16 8.5k Specs

AMD vs NVIDIA

At FP8 the NVIDIA pick is 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at about 3.8k tokens/s for $8.00/hr; the AMD pick is 8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB at about 6.4k tokens/s for $19.12/hr. Per rental dollar NVIDIA delivers 1.43x the tokens of AMD here.

NVIDIA: 475 tokens/s per dollar, 791 tokens/s per kW (16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition).AMD: 333 tokens/s per dollar, 1.1k tokens/s per kW (8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB).Intel: no live price, 820 tokens/s per kW (8 x Data Center GPU Max 1550 128GB).Other: no live price, 385 tokens/s per kW (16 x BR100).

NVIDIA 21 parts fit
Best value: 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition, 3.8k tok/s for $8.00/hr
Fewest GPUs: 4 x Rubin SXM, 14k tok/s
AMD 8 parts fit
Best value: 8 x Instinct MI300X 192GB, 6.4k tok/s for $19.12/hr
Fewest GPUs: 4 x Instinct MI455X OAM, 15k tok/s
Intel 1 parts fit
Fewest GPUs: 8 x Data Center GPU Max 1550 128GB, 3.9k tok/s
Other 1 parts fit
Fewest GPUs: 16 x BR100, 3.4k tok/s

Fleet what-if

Compare whole fleets at these settings: a thousand of one part against a hundred of another. Each fleet splits into replicas of its tensor-parallel width; GPUs left over sit idle.

A
B
FleetReplicasTokens/s
A 1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB 125 x TP8 721k
B 104 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB 13 x TP8 125k

1,000 x H200 SXM 141GB: 721k tokens/s, $2,990/hr, 700 kW.104 x GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 125k tokens/s, $1,092/hr, no power figure.

H200 SXM 141GB: 721k tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.GB200 NVL72 GPU 186GB: 1.20M tokens/s at 1000 GPUs.

Size GLM-5.3 for a tokens per second target

The calculator starts from your traffic instead of a fleet: set a target rate and read the replica count for every GPU.

Frequently asked questions

How much GPU memory does GLM-5.3 need?

The weights take 753 GB at the native FP8 precision (1,507 GB at BF16, 753 GB at FP8, 424 GB at INT4). Each concurrent stream adds 88 KB of KV cache per token: 0.4 GB at 4,096 tokens and 2.9 GB at 32,768 tokens.

What is the bare minimum to run GLM-5.3?

4 x Instinct MI350X OAM at FP8 with 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. The cheapest live rental for that footprint is 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $8.00 per hour.

How many H100s do you need to run GLM-5.3?

16 H100s at FP8 for 4,096 tokens of context and one stream. For 32,768 tokens and 32 concurrent streams the tensor-parallel group is 16 H100s, and 1,000 tokens per second takes 16 H100s across 1 replicas.

How much does GLM-5.3 cost per million tokens on an H100?

About $1.12 per million output tokens at FP8, 32,768 tokens of context and 32 streams, using the cheapest live on-demand price of $1.79 per GPU-hour. The cheapest part per token is 16 x RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition at $0.59.

What precision does GLM-5.3 ship in?

The published checkpoint is FP8. FP8 halves the BF16 footprint with the accuracy the lab validated; INT4 is a further community quantisation.

All figures are roofline estimates from the model's config.json and each GPU's published memory, bandwidth and tensor-core peak, with fixed efficiency factors. Prices are the cheapest live on-demand listing per GPU when the site has one. They are a planning floor; a tuned serving stack can do better. Same geometry as GLM-5.2, shipped in FP8. Active parameters computed from the expert geometry, net of the multi-token-prediction layer.