Best AI for coding / head-to-head

GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.5for coding

The verdict

GLM 5.2 wins, 9291

Same 18 coding tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. GLM 5.2 took 4 tasks, GPT-5.5 took 5, 9 tied. Tested 16 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Retry with backoff

Write an async retry wrapper in TypeScript: exponential backoff with jitter, a maximum attempt count, and it must NOT retry on 4xx responses other than 429. Maximum 30 lines. State what happens on the final failure.

GLM 5.210/10
```typescript
export async function retry(fn: () => Promise<Response>, maxAttempts = 5, baseDelay = 1000): Promise<Response> {
  for (let attempt = 1; attempt <= maxAttempts; attempt++) {
    try {
      const res = await fn();
      if (res.ok) return res;
      // Do not retry on 4xx errors except 429 (Too Many Requests)
      if (res.status >= 400 && res.status < 500 && res.status !== 429) return res;
      if (attempt === maxAttempts) return res;
    } catch (err) {
      if (attempt === maxAttempts) throw err;
    }
    // Exponential back…
```ts
type RetryOptions = { attempts?: number; baseMs?: number; maxMs?: number };

const sleep = (ms: number) => new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, ms));

const statusOf = (x: any): number | undefined =>
  typeof x?.status === "number" ? x.status :
  typeof x?.response?.status === "number" ? x.response.status :
  undefined;

const isNonRetryable4xx = (s?: number) =>
  s !== 429 && s !== undefined && s >= 400 && s < 500;

export async function retry<T>(
  fn: () => Promise<T>,
  { attempts = 5, baseMs = 200, maxMs = 5000 }: RetryOptions = {}
): Prom…

Task by task

TaskGLM 5.2GPT-5.5
Duration parser88
Find the bug1010
SQL without window functions1010
Infinite useEffect1010
Typed debounce89
Leftmost binary search1010
Security review910
Safe migration79
Fix the code not the test109
Race condition910
Retry with backoff105
Recursive type1010
Bash one-liner109
Explain and cost910
Regex with limits88
Callback to async109
Diagnose from a trace88
Idempotency99

Full receipts: GLM 5.2, GPT-5.5 · judges claude-sonnet-5, gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra

Questions people ask

Which is better for coding: GLM 5.2 or GPT-5.5?

GLM 5.2 — it scored 92/100 against 91/100 on our 18-task coding suite, winning 4 tasks to 5 with 9 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published coding 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 coding head-to-heads: GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Sol · GLM 5.2 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · GPT-5.5 vs GPT-5.6 Terra

Full ranking: Best AI for coding · model pages: GLM 5.2, GPT-5.5