Scaleway vs Z.AI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Scaleway and Z.AI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Updated July 2026.
Scaleway
French cloud provider with sovereign EU LLM inference
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with a focus on European data sovereignty. Their Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models, making them a strong choice for European businesses with data residency requirements.
Z.AI
GLM frontier models with 1M context
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.2 supports a 1M token context window and is designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks.
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Live token pricing
Strengths & weaknesses
Scaleway
Z.AI
Key differentiators
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — a French company with French data centres, ideal for organisations with strict EU data residency requirements.
GLM-5.2 offers a 1M token context window at $1.11/1M input tokens, making it one of the most cost-effective long-context models available.
Frequently asked questions
Scaleway FAQs
Is Scaleway GDPR-compliant?
Yes. Scaleway is a French company with data centres in France and the Netherlands. All data stays within the EU, making it one of the strongest options for GDPR compliance and French data sovereignty requirements.
What LLM models does Scaleway offer?
Scaleway's Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models. Their catalog is focused on the most widely-used open-source models.
How does Scaleway compare to Nebius AI for European inference?
Both are European providers with GDPR-compliant infrastructure. Scaleway has stronger French data sovereignty credentials (French company, French data centres) while Nebius AI has a larger model catalog and more inference-focused infrastructure.
Z.AI FAQs
What is GLM-5.2?
GLM-5.2 is the latest model in Zhipu AI's GLM series, supporting a 1M token context window. It is designed for long-document analysis, coding, and enterprise chat applications.
How does Z.AI compare to other Chinese LLM providers?
Z.AI's GLM models compete with Alibaba's Qwen and Baidu's ERNIE series. GLM-5.2 stands out for its 1M context window and competitive pricing.
Provider resources
Scaleway — French cloud provider with sovereign EU LLM inference
Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with a focus on European data sovereignty. Their Generative APIs service hosts Llama 3.3 and other open-weight models, making them a strong choice for European businesses with data residency requirements.
The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — a French company with French data centres, ideal for organisations with strict EU data residency requirements.
Z.AI — GLM frontier models with 1M context
Z.AI (formerly Zhipu AI) develops the GLM series of large language models. GLM-5.2 supports a 1M token context window and is designed for enterprise-grade chat, coding, and long-document tasks.
GLM-5.2 offers a 1M token context window at $1.11/1M input tokens, making it one of the most cost-effective long-context models available.
Key strengths compared
Scaleway
- ▸French cloud — strongest EU data sovereignty credentials
- ▸GDPR-compliant with data centres in France and Netherlands
- ▸GPU compute + LLM inference from one provider
Z.AI
- ▸1M token context window
- ▸Strong Chinese and English bilingual performance
- ▸Enterprise-grade reliability
Provider category context
Scaleway is a cloud, founded in 1999. Z.AI is a frontier lab, founded in 2019. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.
How to choose between them
Choose Scaleway if you need french cloud — strongest eu data sovereignty credentials. Choose Z.AI if you need 1m token context window. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.