Z
What is Z.ai?
Z.ai is the international consumer and developer brand for Zhipu AI, a Tsinghua-affiliated Chinese lab. It offers a free web chatbot built on the GLM model family (GLM-4.5/4.6/4.7), plus an OpenAI-compatible API. Zhipu releases GLM weights under the MIT license, making it one of the more permissively licensed open-weight model families.
Key features
- Free web chatbot at chat.z.ai with weekly usage caps on full-quality models
- GLM model family released under the MIT license, free to self-host and fine-tune
- OpenAI-compatible API for drop-in use with existing tooling
- Dedicated coding-focused model tier for IDE/agent integrations
- Vision-language and text-to-video model variants
- Competitive benchmark results against Claude and DeepSeek on coding/reasoning
How to get started
- Go to chat.z.ai and sign up for free to start chatting
- Register at bigmodel.cn or docs.z.ai for API keys
- Point OpenAI-compatible tools (like Cline or Roo Code) at the Z.ai API endpoint
- Download GLM weights from Hugging Face for self-hosting
- Use the free Flash-tier models for lightweight tasks without API cost
Use cases
- Free general-purpose chat and reasoning
- Self-hosting an MIT-licensed open-weight model
- Adding a lower-cost model to an existing OpenAI-compatible coding agent
- Vision-language tasks like image understanding
- Cost-sensitive production API use via the Flash tier
Z.ai vs. alternatives
| Tool | How it compares |
|---|---|
| Z.ai | Zhipu AI's international chat and API brand for its open-weight GLM model family. |
| DeepSeek | another Chinese open-weight lab, similar pricing tier |
| Qwen | broader multimodal and multilingual coverage |
| Groq | faster inference hosting for open-weight models |
FAQ
Is Z.ai free to use?
Z.ai's plans: Free tier with weekly usage caps; paid API and higher-tier plans via Z.ai/bigmodel.cn. Pricing and free-tier limits change over time, so check the official site above for the latest details.
What is Z.ai used for?
Zhipu AI's international chat and API brand for its open-weight GLM model family.
Who is Z.ai best for?
Z.ai is a good fit for free general-purpose chat and reasoning, or self-hosting an MIT-licensed open-weight model.
What are the alternatives to Z.ai?
Commonly compared alternatives include DeepSeek, Qwen, and Groq, see the comparison above for how they differ.
Related tools
D
Q
GLast reviewed: 2026-08 · Reviewed by AIKetra editors · How we evaluate tools