GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal vs Gemini 4 Argon
GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal took 45 min 14 s and $0.42 at list price, Gemini 4 Argon took 13 min 43 s and $0.68 at list price. GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal took 3.3× as long, and Gemini 4 Argon cost 1.6× as much.
GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal
Z.ai · $1.25/M out
Gemini 4 Argon
Google · $10.00/M out · 2,036 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam devoted to the repair and restoration of vintage synthesizers. We work on the machines that shaped the sound of the last fifty years — Roland, Moog, Yamaha, Korg, EMS, and the rest — from the rare and legendary to the well-loved and well-worn.
We started the studio because these instruments matter. They were built to be repaired, with discrete components, schematics, and construction that reward patience and care. Somewhere along the way, that way of making things fell out of fashion. We think it's worth keeping alive.
Every synthesizer that comes through our door is treated the same way: carefully diagnosed, honestly assessed, and repaired with respect for its original character. No unnecessary modifications, no shortcuts that compromise the instrument. Whether it's a failed voice chip, a dead key, or years of dust and neglect, our job is to put the machine back in the hands of the people who play it.
In a quiet industrial building overlooking the Maas, the air smells of warm dust, solder flux, and ozone. This is Patchbay, a three-person workshop in Rotterdam dedicated to keeping the golden age of electronic music alive. We don’t view vintage synthesizers as museum pieces to be locked behind glass. To us, a Roland Jupiter-8 or an ARP Odyssey is a living, breathing instrument meant to be played, gigged, and pushed to its sonic limits.
Between the three of us, we have spent decades deciphering faded schematics, hunting down obsolete transistors, and cleaning decades of club grime from beneath weighted keys. Rotterdam is a city built on raw electronics and relentless rhythms, and we take pride in keeping its hardware running. Whether you bring us a touring workhorse with a dead voice chip or a garage-find modular rig that hasn’t powered on since 1984, we are here to make it sing again.
Specs and numbers
| GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal | Gemini 4 Argon | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Z.ai | |
| Made in | China | US |
| Released | 2 Nov 2026 | 13 Oct 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.37 | $2.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $1.25 | $10.00 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | closed |
| Hacker News points | — | 2,036 |
| Time for the six prompts | 45 min 14 s | 13 min 43 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.42 | $0.68 |
GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal was cheaper: $0.26 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Gemini 4 Argon was faster: 31 min 31 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play.
Rebuild this screen experiment: Gemini 4 Argon's rebuild matched the screenshot at 69%; GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal was not in it. Tea Garden experiment: Gemini 4 Argon's game passed 5 of 5 checks; GLM 5.3 FlashX Legal was not in it.





