Particle-1 vs GLM 5.3
Particle-1 took 7 min 13 s and $0.056 at list price, GLM 5.3 took 22 min 22 s and $0.34 at list price. GLM 5.3 took 3.1× as long and cost 6.0× as much.
Particle-1
Particle AI · $0.50/M out · 17 HN pts
GLM 5.3
Z.ai · $1.40/M out · 3,306 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 dedicated to the repair and restoration of vintage synthesizers. We are engineers, musicians, and collectors who believe these instruments are not museum pieces but tools meant to be played, heard, and trusted on stage or in the studio. Our bench has seen everything from stubborn Moogs and fragile ARP boards to polysynths with corroded traces and keyboards that have traveled too many miles. We approach each repair with patience, documentation, and respect for the original design, while making sensible updates only where reliability demands them. Because we are a small team, you work directly with the person handling your instrument, from the first diagnosis to the final calibration. We also advise on maintenance, source hard-to-find parts, and help you decide when a repair is worthwhile. Patchbay exists to keep old synthesizers making new music.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop in Rotterdam where vintage synthesizers come back to life. Whatever lands on our bench — a battered Minimoog, a Juno with dead keys, an ARP silent since the eighties — gets the same treatment: careful diagnosis, honest advice, and repairs done right.
We started Patchbay because we believe a good synthesizer shouldn't die of old age. These machines are more than circuits and sliders — they're the sound of records you grew up with, and the reason some of us got into music in the first place. Every one we fix goes back out into the world ready to make more.
Between us we handle everything from recapping and calibration to keybed work and the hunt for parts nobody has made in decades. It's slow, meticulous work, and we like it that way. If something in your collection hums, crackles, or refuses to turn on, bring it in — we'll see what we can do.
Specs and numbers
| Particle-1 | GLM 5.3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Particle AI | Z.ai |
| Made in | — | China |
| Released | 28 Oct 2026 | 18 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $0.50 | $1.40 |
| Context | 1,048,576 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | 17 | 3,306 |
| Time for the six prompts | 7 min 13 s | 22 min 22 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.056 | $0.34 |
Particle-1 was cheaper: $0.28 less at list price, and less on 5 of the 6 prompts. Particle-1 was faster: 15 min 9 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Particle-1's Breakout game plays; GLM 5.3's stopped painting. GLM 5.3's Breakout game showed a blank first frame when the still was taken.
Tea Garden experiment: GLM 5.3's game passed 1 of 5 checks; Particle-1 was not in it.





