zAI and Cline deliver frontier-level AI coding for just $3

Most developers paying $200/month for Claude Max could get similar coding assistance for $3/month. zAI's new GLM Coding Plans work with Cline to provide access to GLM-4.5 at a fraction of typical subscription costs.

zAI offers two plans: GLM Coding Lite at $3/month (120 prompts per 5-hour cycle) and GLM Coding Pro at $15/month (600 prompts per 5-hour cycle). Both use GLM-4.5, which performs well on tool-calling tasks that coding agents rely on. Claude Max costs $200 monthly and provides 20x usage limits plus access to all Claude models.

What $3 gets you versus what $200 gets you

For $3/month with zAI's GLM Coding Lite, you get 120 prompts per 5-hour cycle using GLM-4.5. This model achieves a 90.6% tool-calling success rate, beating Claude 4 Sonnet's 89.5%. Since Cline constantly calls tools to read files, execute commands, and modify code, this tool-calling performance matters.

GLM-4.5 ranks third overall among all AI models, trailing only OpenAI's o3 and Grok 4. On coding benchmarks, it achieves 64.2% accuracy on SWE-bench Verified.

GLM Coding Pro at $15/month provides 600 prompts per 5-hour cycle, still costing 13x less than Claude Max.

Setup

The setup process is straightforward. Copy your API key from zAI and paste it into Cline with the zAI provider. No complex authentication flows, no subscription management, no wondering whether you're hitting usage caps.

Here's the link to grab your subscription: z.ai/subscribe

Cost comparison

If you're currently paying $200/month for Claude Max primarily for coding assistance, zAI's GLM Coding Lite at $3/month offers a cost-effective alternative. That's $197/month in savings, or $2,364 annually.

For teams, the numbers add up quickly. A 10-developer team spending $2,000/month on Claude Max subscriptions could use zAI GLM Coding Pro for $150/month instead.

Getting started

To use zAI's GLM Coding Plans with Cline, sign up at z.ai/subscribe and choose your plan. After subscribing, create an API key from your zAI dashboard and paste it into Cline's zAI provider settings. This gives you access to GLM-4.5.

The first month offers promotional pricing: GLM Coding Lite drops from $6 to $3, and GLM Coding Pro drops from $30 to $15.

GLM Coding Lite ($3/month, 120 prompts per 5-hour cycle) works for most developers with moderate usage needs. GLM Coding Pro ($15/month, 600 prompts per 5-hour cycle) is designed for professionals handling high-volume tasks.

-Nick