glm 5.3 vs kimi k3 – four hogwarts locations in three.js

the setup: streamed straight off @openrouter, no agent loop, no tools, no filesystem – one prompt in, one html file out. the system prompt is a three.js skill, 32,014 chars, byte-identical for both

models: @zai_org glm 5.3, @kimi_moonshot kimi k3

scenes: the castle from the black lake at night, the great hall by candlelight, the grand staircase, the quidditch pitch at midday. four camera shots each. glm crashed on the staircase, kimi crashed on the castle, one hand-fix each

- total build time, four scenes
#1 glm 5.3 – 81m 13s
#2 kimi k3 – 86m 10s

- total output tokens
#1 kimi k3 – 211,759
#2 glm 5.3 – 364,565

- total price
#1 glm 5.3 – $1.790
#2 kimi k3 – $3.259

- lines shipped
#1 glm 5.3 – 4,257
#2 kimi k3 – 4,309

observations:

• kimi is 3.1x more expensive per output token across all four scenes, with no outlier. it is the price, not one bad run

• kimi's speed is a serving question. 89.7 tok/s through @togethercompute, 31.5 through moonshot ai, same weights, 2.9x apart

• glm goes deeper on detail when it has room: 1,463 lines on the castle, real stone coursing, window reveals with mullions, dormers cut into the slate. it is also the one that plans hardest – 250-320k chars of reasoning before it writes a line

watch the full test via link