Z.ai

Z.ai is the public chat and agent interface for the GLM model family. You can open the site and start chatting without an account, although the more capable models, file uploads, conversation history, and agent tools require you to sign in.

The basic unsigned session currently uses GLM-4.7. Registered users can access newer options including GLM-5.2, GLM-5.1, GLM-5-Turbo, and the GLM-5V-Turbo vision model. Model availability can change, so check the selector rather than assuming every account has the same choices.

GLM-5.2 is the main reason to try it. The model supports a one million token context window, which is useful for large codebases, long documents, research collections, and extended tasks where earlier details need to remain available. Z.ai provides different reasoning effort levels, including a Max setting that spends more time and compute on difficult work.

The chat interface has quick response and deeper thinking controls. Deep Search handles research that needs several rounds of searching and source checking rather than a short web answer. It is better suited to comparison work, technical questions, and subjects where the first search result will not settle anything. Generated research still needs checking against the linked pages.

File analysis accepts documents and images after sign-in. You can ask questions about uploaded material, extract information, summarize long files, or use the contents as context for another task. GLM-5V-Turbo adds visual understanding for screenshots, diagrams, interfaces, and other image based input.

Z.ai is moving beyond a standard chatbot. Its Agent mode can work through longer tasks with tools and produce downloadable documents. Built-in skills cover Word documents, PDFs, and spreadsheets, with examples including reports, lesson plans, proposals, schedules, and financial analysis. This is more useful than receiving a wall of markdown and rebuilding the document yourself.

The homepage also includes shortcuts for Magic Design, full stack development, and code generation. Magic Design provides starting points for landing pages, teaching materials, personal sites, small games, and similar visual projects. You describe what you need, then continue adjusting the result through conversation.

Coding is a major part of the product. GLM-5.2 can generate applications, inspect existing code, debug errors, plan larger changes, and keep working across long development sessions. ZCode is the separate desktop coding agent, while the GLM Coding Plan connects the models to supported terminal and IDE tools. Coding subscriptions have their own usage limits and should not be confused with general API credit.

Developers can use Z.ai through an OpenAI compatible API. The platform covers language and vision models, web search, OCR, speech recognition, image generation, video generation, translation, and agent tools. API access is usage based. Some lightweight models are available free, while flagship models and media generation consume paid credit.

The consumer chat can be used free, with an account needed for its newer models and advanced features. Paid coding subscriptions and metered API access are available separately. Z.ai does not publish a particularly clear allowance table for the free chat, so expect model access, queues, and limits to move as new models are released.

Privacy needs attention before uploading company documents. Z.ai’s consumer privacy policy covers prompts, images, device information, usage history, and technical logs. Its terms allow non-personal user content to be stored and used to develop or improve its AI technology, and personal data is generally processed in Singapore. The API has different data terms and says customer content is not stored or used for model improvement without explicit agreement.

Z.ai suits people who want to test current open weight GLM models without installing them locally, particularly for coding, document work, and research. The free chat is easy to try. For confidential client files or internal company data, read the consumer and API terms separately before deciding which version to use.

Chat with GLM-5.2 and earlier GLM models
One million token context with GLM-5.2
Quick response and deep thinking modes
Adjustable High and Max reasoning effort
Deep Search for multi-step web research
File and image analysis
Vision understanding with GLM-5V-Turbo
Agent mode for longer tasks
Word, PDF, and spreadsheet creation
Magic Design for visual projects
Full stack application and code generation
OpenAI compatible API
Text, vision, OCR, audio, image, and video models
Separate ZCode desktop coding agent
GLM Coding Plan for supported coding tools
Open model weights available for local deployment

<h3>Alternatives to Z.ai</h3>

<ul>

<li><a href="https://aitoolsdirectory.com/tool/kimi">Kimi</a>: Combines chat, web research, file analysis, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, websites, coding, and multi-agent work.</li>

<li><a href="https://aitoolsdirectory.com/tool/chatgpt">ChatGPT</a>: General AI workspace for writing, research, data analysis, files, images, voice, projects, tasks, and connected applications.</li>

<li><a href="https://aitoolsdirectory.com/tool/claude-ai">Claude AI</a>: Anthropic assistant for writing, long-document analysis, research, coding, computer tasks, and collaborative project work.</li>

<li><a href="https://aitoolsdirectory.com/tool/deepseek">DeepSeek</a>: Provides free AI chat and developer APIs focused on reasoning, coding, structured output, tool calls, and agent workflows.</li>

<li><a href="https://aitoolsdirectory.com/tool/poe">Poe</a>: Places hundreds of text, image, video, and audio models in one interface with custom bots, group chats, and API access.</li>

</ul>