Pareto 26.9 vs GLM 5.3 Flash
Pareto 26.9 took 10 min 32 s and $0.34 at list price, GLM 5.3 Flash took 59 min 10 s and $0.037 at list price. GLM 5.3 Flash took 5.6× as long, and Pareto 26.9 cost 9.1× as much.
Pareto 26.9
Unbiased · $7.50/M out
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 is a small workshop in the heart of Rotterdam, where three people spend their days elbow-deep in the guts of vintage synthesizers. We fix the machines that made the sounds you grew up with—the ones that shaped entire genres and then got left in basements when the tech moved on. But we're not a museum. Our benches are covered in solder, schematics, and the occasional broken key that's been there for two weeks longer than we'd like to admit.
We started this studio because we got tired of seeing classic gear being stripped for parts, or worse, turned into Instagram decor. These instruments deserve better. They were built to make noise, and we want to keep them doing exactly that.
Between the three of us, we've fixed everything from a 1960s Buchla to a beat-up Juno that fell down a flight of stairs. If you've got a synth that's gone quiet, bring it in. We'll bring it back.
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
| Pareto 26.9 | GLM 5.3 Flash | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Unbiased | Z.ai |
| Made in | — | China |
| Released | 13 Oct 2026 | 26 Aug 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | $2.50 | $0.016 |
| Price out, per M tokens | $7.50 | $0.148 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | closed | open |
| Hacker News points | — | 1,329 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 32 s | 59 min 10 s |
| List price of the six prompts | $0.34 | $0.037 |
GLM 5.3 Flash was cheaper: $0.30 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Pareto 26.9 was faster: 48 min 37 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, both Breakout games play. Pareto 26.9's landing page was cut off at the output limit (12,000 tokens).





