DeepSeek vs Qwen vs Kimi vs GLM: Which One Should You Use?

Now let me walk you through each family, what they’re great at, and where they fall short.

DeepSeek: The One I Reach For Most

Okay, I’m just going to say it — DeepSeek V4 Flash at $0.25 per million output tokens is the best deal in AI right now. Period. I use it for probably 80% of my day-to-day work and my monthly bill dropped by about 60% compared to when I was running everything through GPT-4o.

The Lineup

Here’s what DeepSeek offers and where each one shines:

What Makes It Click

• The price-to-quality ratio is genuinely absurd. V4 Flash holds its own against models that cost 10x more.
• Code generation is where DeepSeek absolutely shines — I ran it through some HumanEval-style tests and it consistently scored near the top.
• Speed is ridiculous. I’m getting around 60 tokens per second on V4 Flash, which makes it feel instant.
• English is strong. I honestly can’t tell the difference between V4 Flash and the Western incumbents on most English prompts.
• It comes from a research-first culture, so there’s a tradition of open weights and transparency.

Where It Struggles

• Vision is basically a no-go — there’s no native image understanding, so if you need to analyze pictures, look elsewhere.
• Chinese-language quality is good but not the absolute best. GLM and Kimi edge it out here.
• The model variety is narrower than what Qwen offers, so you have fewer size options to fine-tune cost vs. quality.

Let me show you how easy it is to switch to V4 Flash — this is literally the code I run dozens of times a day:

from openai import OpenAI client = OpenAI( api_key="ga_xxxxxxxxxxxx", base_url="https://global-apis.com/v1" ) response = client.chat.completions.create( model="deepseek-v4-flash", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain quantum computing in 100 words"}] ) print(response.choices[0].message.content) 

That’s it. Drop in your Global API key, point the base URL at https://global-apis.com/v1, and you’re off to the races.

Qwen: The Model That Does Everything

If DeepSeek is my daily driver, Qwen is my “I need a specific tool” pick. Alibaba’s team has built out the most complete model family of the bunch, and honestly, the breadth is staggering.

The Lineup

What Makes It Click

• The range is unmatched. From $0.01/M all the way up to $3.20/M, there’s a Qwen model for literally every budget.
• Vision is solid — the VL series handles image tasks well.
• Omni-modal support means you can feed it audio, video, and images in one shot.
• Alibaba’s infrastructure means the uptime and latency are enterprise-grade.
• The team ships new versions constantly. Qwen3.5, Qwen3.6 — there’s always something new to try.

Where It Struggles

• The naming is genuinely confusing. Qwen3-8B, Qwen3-32B, Qwen3-Coder-30B, Qwen3-VL-32B, Qwen3-Omni-30B, Qwen3.5-397B — it takes a minute to figure out what each one does.
• English quality is good but not DeepSeek-tier. For pure English prompts, I still slightly prefer DeepSeek.
• A couple of the models feel overpriced for what they deliver. Qwen3.6-35B at $1/M made me raise an eyebrow.

Here’s a quick example using Qwen3-32B for general tasks — perfect for code generation or content work:

response = client.chat.completions.create( model="Qwen/Qwen3-32B", messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Write a Python function to merge two sorted lists"}] ) print(response.choices[0].message.content) 

Notice how I’m using the same client object from before? That’s the magic of OpenAI-compatible APIs — once you set it up once, you just swap the model parameter.

Kimi: The Brain You Call for Hard Problems

Kimi is the priciest of the four families, with prices ranging from $3.00 to $3.50 per million output tokens, but holy cow — when I need raw reasoning power, nothing else in this list touches it.

The Lineup

I won’t show every variant here since the family is more focused, but K2.5 at $3.00/M is the headline model, and the whole range sits between $3.00 and $3.50/M. There’s no “budget” Kimi option — you’re paying premium prices for premium reasoning.

What Makes It Click

• The reasoning benchmarks are bonkers. When I tested it on multi-step logic puzzles and math problems, it consistently outperformed everything else in this comparison.
• Moonshot AI clearly poured their research budget into making Kimi think harder than its peers.
• It’s still OpenAI-compatible, so integration is painless.
• If you have a use case where getting the right answer matters more than cost (legal analysis, scientific reasoning, complex planning), this is your pick.

Where It Struggles

• The price. $3.00/M is 12x what DeepSeek V4 Flash costs, so you can’t just default to it for everything.
• It’s noticeably slower than the other families. When I’m chatting with Kimi, I can feel the extra latency.
• No vision support at all — text only.
• Less model variety. You’re not picking between eight sizes; you’re picking one premium experience.

I won’t lie, I use Kimi sparingly. But when I’m stuck on a tricky algorithm or need to debug something where the chain of reasoning matters, K2.5 has saved me hours.

GLM: The Bilingual Powerhouse

Last but definitely not least — GLM from Zhipu AI is my secret weapon for anything involving Chinese language, and it’s surprisingly competitive on English too.

The Lineup

And the full price range spans $0.01 to $1.92/M.

What Makes It Click

• Chinese-language quality is top-tier — it ties with Kimi for the best Chinese understanding in this comparison.
• The price floor is wild. GLM-4-9B at $0.01/M is one of the cheapest viable models I’ve ever used.
• GLM-4.6V brings genuine vision support, which DeepSeek and Kimi lack.
• For mixed Chinese/English workloads (which, honestly, come up more than you’d think in global products), GLM is the most natural choice.
• The model lineup is clean — not as overwhelming as Qwen’s catalog.

Where It Struggles

• Code generation isn’t its strongest suit. It scores a 3 out of 5 in my testing, which puts it behind the other three families for coding tasks.
• The top-tier GLM-5 is pricier than DeepSeek V4 Flash at $1.92/M, so the value proposition depends heavily on whether you need the Chinese-language edge.
• Speed is good but not the fastest — sits comfortably in the middle of the pack.

So Which One Should You Actually Pick?

Here’s my honest, from-the-hip recommendation after months of using all four:

If you’re building a product and cost matters (when doesn’t it?), start with DeepSeek V4 Flash. At $0.