Zhipu Hikes Prices Again as China AI Monetization Wave Quickens

Zhipu raised the cost of access to its most advanced AI model by at least 8%, joining other leading Chinese artificial intelligence players in trying to profit off years of research and computing investments.

The Beijing-headquartered company released its latest open source model GLM-5.1 this week. It set prices for cloud-based usage — for instance, input tokens — between 8% and 17% higher roughly than for its older GLM-5 Turbo, according to official pricing on OpenRouter. That’s at least the second time the company, which debuted in Hong Kong in January, has raised prices for users in 2026.