openclaw/docs/providers/zai.md

summary	read_when
Use Z.AI / Zhipu AI (GLM models) with OpenClaw	You want Z.AI / GLM models in OpenClaw You need to choose between international and China endpoints You have a Coding Plan subscription

Z.AI / Zhipu AI (GLM Models)

Z.AI and Zhipu AI provide access to GLM models. There are four provider configurations depending on your region and subscription type.

Provider Variants

Provider	Region	Plan Type	Base URL
zai	International	Pay-as-you-go	api.z.ai
zai-coding	International	Coding Plan	api.z.ai (coding endpoint)
zhipu	China	Pay-as-you-go	bigmodel.cn
zhipu-coding	China	Coding Plan	bigmodel.cn (coding endpoint)

Which should I use?

• International users with pay-as-you-go: Use zai
• International users with Coding Plan subscription ($3-15/mo): Use zai-coding
• China mainland users with pay-as-you-go: Use zhipu
• China mainland users with Coding Plan: Use zhipu-coding

The Coding Plan endpoints are optimized for coding tools and have better tool-calling performance. They use subscription-based billing rather than per-token billing.

CLI Setup

# International (pay-as-you-go)
openclaw onboard --auth-choice zai-api-key

# International (Coding Plan)
openclaw onboard --auth-choice zai-coding-api-key

# China (pay-as-you-go)
openclaw onboard --auth-choice zhipu-api-key

# China (Coding Plan)
openclaw onboard --auth-choice zhipu-coding-api-key

Non-interactive

# International (pay-as-you-go)
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --auth-choice zai-api-key --zai-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY"

# International (Coding Plan)
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --auth-choice zai-coding-api-key --zai-coding-api-key "$ZAI_API_KEY"

# China (pay-as-you-go)
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --auth-choice zhipu-api-key --zhipu-api-key "$ZHIPU_API_KEY"

# China (Coding Plan)
openclaw onboard --non-interactive --auth-choice zhipu-coding-api-key --zhipu-coding-api-key "$ZHIPU_API_KEY"

Environment Variables

Provider	Primary Env Var	Fallback Chain
zai	ZAI_API_KEY	Z_AI_API_KEY
zai-coding	ZAI_CODING_API_KEY	ZAI_API_KEY → Z_AI_API_KEY
zhipu	ZHIPU_API_KEY	(none)
zhipu-coding	ZHIPU_CODING_API_KEY	ZHIPU_API_KEY

The coding providers fall back to their respective general provider's env var, so you can use a single API key for both if desired.

Config Snippets

International (pay-as-you-go)

{
  env: { ZAI_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "zai/glm-4.7" } } }
}

International (Coding Plan)

{
  env: { ZAI_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "zai-coding/glm-4.7" } } }
}

China (pay-as-you-go)

{
  env: { ZHIPU_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "zhipu/glm-4.7" } } }
}

China (Coding Plan)

{
  env: { ZHIPU_API_KEY: "sk-..." },
  agents: { defaults: { model: { primary: "zhipu-coding/glm-4.7" } } }
}

Important Notes

• Keys are subscription-gated: Your API key only works on the endpoint matching your active subscription. A Coding Plan key will return error 1113 ("Insufficient balance") on the general pay-as-you-go endpoint, and vice versa. Choose the provider variant that matches your subscription type.

• Regional keys are not interchangeable: Keys from z.ai don't work on bigmodel.cn and vice versa. Create your key on the platform for your region.

• Coding endpoint optimized for tools: The coding endpoints have better tool-calling performance and are recommended for use with coding assistants.

• GLM models: Models are available as {provider}/glm-4.7, {provider}/glm-4.6, etc. See /providers/glm for the model family overview.

• Authentication: All variants use Bearer token auth with your API key.