GLM-4.7-Flash vs Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
GLM-4.7-Flash scores higher on the intelligence index, 15 against 10. Both take the same machine to start: the cheapest here that runs either is the Framework Desktop, 32GB, at $1,269. On it, GLM-4.7-Flash is about 1.5× quicker: 40 tok/s against 27, both estimated from memory bandwidth. At 500k tokens a day the Framework Desktop, 32GB pays for itself in 96 years running GLM-4.7-Flash, against 164 years running Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507.
| GLM-4.7-Flash | Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 | |
|---|---|---|
| Intelligence index | 15 | 10 |
| Class | Haiku-class | Below every hosted tier |
| Weights | 18 GB | 19 GB |
| Needs at 32k | 20 GB | 22 GB |
| Quantisation | Q4_K_M | Q4_K_M |
| Parameters | 31.2B (3B active) | 30.5B (3.3B active) |
| Max context | 198k | 256k |
| API price per 1M | $0.061 in / $0.4 out | $0.048 in / $0.193 out |
| Licence | MIT | Apache 2.0 |
| Machines here that run it | 30 of 37 | 28 of 37 |
| Cheapest machine that runs it | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB $1,269 | Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB $1,269 |
| Summarising | not rated | good |
| Translation | not rated | good |
| Everyday coding | not rated | good |
| Reasoning & maths | not rated | usable |
| Agentic work | not rated | usable |
Run GLM-4.7-Flash on the Framework Desktop, 32GB · or Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
Ratings are coarse on purpose: they say what a model is usable for, not where it places to the decimal.
Side by side on the Framework Desktop, 32GB
The cheapest machine that runs either model is the same one, so this is the pair doing the same work on the same hardware: Strix Halo Framework Desktop, 32GB, at $1,269.
| GLM-4.7-Flash | Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 | |
|---|---|---|
| Speed at 32k | 40 tok/s estimated | 27 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on this machine | Pays back in 96 years | Pays back in 164 years |
| API cost per month | $1.25 | $0.87 |
Run GLM-4.7-Flash on the Framework Desktop, 32GB · or Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
How much use it takes to pay for the machine
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both models at the five levels of use the calculator names, on the Framework Desktop, 32GB. GLM-4.7-Flash pays for it sooner at every level of use, so which of them to run does not turn on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | GLM-4.7-Flash | Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 961 years | 1,635 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 240 years | 409 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 48 years | 82 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 12 years | 20 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 2.4 years | 4.1 years |
Run GLM-4.7-Flash at 20M tokens a day · or Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507
Machines that run one and not the other
GLM-4.7-Flash needs 20 GB of memory at 32k of context and Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 needs 22 GB. That puts GLM-4.7-Flash on 2 of the 37 machines priced here that Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 does not, starting at $1,299.
| Machine | Price | Memory | Speed on GLM-4.7-Flash | Pay-back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mac mini M6, 32GB | $1,299 | 32 GB | 14 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 103 years |
| MacBook Pro M5 (14-inch), 32GB | $2,399 | 32 GB | 13 tok/s estimated | Pays back in 195 years |
GLM-4.7-Flash is also head to head with Granite 4.2 30B above it on the leaderboard and Gemma 4 12B below it. Two more models need much the same memory: Devstral Small 2 24B and Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B. Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 is also head to head with Mistral Small 4 (119B-2603) above it on the leaderboard and Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B, the current Qwen nearest it in size.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Where nobody rents an open model by the token, its API prices are the nearest hosted model's, named beside them. Machines are the 37 here with a published price that are still sold. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: every machine that runs GLM-4.7-Flash · every machine that runs Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507 · every other match-up · both against the frontier · the quickest pay-back at each level of use