Claude Opus 4.8 vs GLM 5.2 for emotional support
Claude Opus 4.8 wins, 96–91
Same 12 emotional support tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 5 tasks, GLM 5.2 took 1, 6 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.
Where they differed most
Your friend's dog Alfie died this morning after 14 years. Write the text message (max 60 words) you would actually send. Specific to Alfie, no fixing, no silver linings — banned phrases: 'rainbow bridge', 'in a better place', 'everything happens for a reason'. It should ask for nothing except what she wants to give.
Oh no. Not Alfie. Fourteen years is his whole life woven into yours, and now the house is just quiet. I'm so sorry. I'm not going to pretend this is okay, because it isn't. I'm here. Talk about him, sit in silence, cry — whatever you need. No pressure either way. I love you.
I’m so heartbroken for you. Fourteen years with Alfie is such a huge part of your life, and I know how much it hurts to lose him. I’m here for whatever you need—crying, talking about him, or just sitting in silence. No need to reply to this at all. Sending so much love.
Task by task
| Task | Claude Opus 4.8 | GLM 5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| The dog died | 10 | 8 |
| Redundant at 55 | 10 | 10 |
| She said no advice | 10 | 10 |
| After the miscarriage | 10 | 8 |
| Driving test at 9am | 8 | 8 |
| First Father's Day after | 9 | 10 |
| The 3am calls | 9 | 8 |
| Days without speaking | 10 | 9 |
| Stop apologising | 10 | 10 |
| Not a diagnosis | 9 | 9 |
| Her promotion, your rejection | 10 | 10 |
| The 1am message | 10 | 9 |
Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.8, GLM 5.2 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5
Questions people ask
Which is better for emotional support: Claude Opus 4.8 or GLM 5.2?
Claude Opus 4.8 — it scored 96/100 against 91/100 on our 12-task emotional support suite, winning 5 tasks to 1 with 6 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.
How was this tested?
Both models answered the identical published emotional support tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.
More emotional support head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs Claude Sonnet 5 · Claude Sonnet 5 vs GLM 5.2 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro · DeepSeek V4 Pro vs GLM 5.2
Full ranking: Best AI for emotional support · model pages: Claude Opus 4.8, GLM 5.2