Flint vs GLM 5.3 Flash
Flint took 10 min 5 s and was free at list price, GLM 5.3 Flash took 59 min 10 s and $0.037 at list price. GLM 5.3 Flash took 5.9× as long.
Flint
Recursive · free route · 36 HN pts
GLM 5.3 Flash
Z.ai · $0.148/M out · 1,329 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 began in a small, cluttered workshop in Rotterdam, where solder smoke and old capacitors seem to belong together. We are a three-person studio, which means every synthesizer that comes through our door is handled by one of the same people who started the project. No call center, no hand-off to strangers. We repair vintage synthesizers: the dusty analog beasts, the rare oddities, the ones with missing knobs and mysterious tuning drift. Our work is part electronics, part archaeology, part stubborn love. We listen to the hum before we open the case, and we believe most vintage synths are not dead, just waiting for someone to pay attention. In a city known for moving quickly, we prefer taking our time. Patchbay exists to keep old voices alive, one oscillator, filter, and power supply at a time. If you have a synth that sings, whispers, or hums through the decades, we would be glad to meet it.
Patchbay began the way most repair shops do: with a broken synth, a stubborn owner, and a soldering iron that refused to stay idle. We're three people—Joris, Marit, and Tomas—working out of a small workshop on the back streets of Rotterdam-Noord, surrounded by oscilloscopes, spare parts, and instruments that sometimes arrive in worse condition than their owners admit.
Between us, we've spent decades repairing and restoring vintage synthesizers: Rolands, Moogs, Korgs, Yamahas, and machines whose manuals were never written in the first place. We don't sell anything. We fix things. That focus keeps us honest and keeps the work slow, careful, and done properly.
We believe old instruments deserve to keep making music, not gather dust in attics or fetch prices only collectors can pay. Whether it's a cracked keybed, a dying power supply, or a voice that's gone quiet, we'd like to help bring it back.
Specs and numbers
| Flint | GLM 5.3 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Recursive | Z.ai |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 21 Oct 2026 | 26 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $0.016 |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $0.148 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 36 | 1,329 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 5 s | 59 min 10 s |
| List price of the six prompts | free | $0.037 |
Flint was free at list price; GLM 5.3 Flash cost $0.037. Flint was faster: 49 min 5 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Flint's Breakout game loads but doesn't start; GLM 5.3 Flash's plays.
Tea Garden experiment: Flint's game passed 5 of 5 checks; GLM 5.3 Flash was not in it.





