Qingyan / Z.ai glossary
No procedures. Why the names collide. Pick a door on the learning map.
Things that say Zhipu / GLM / Z.ai
| Name | What it is | What it is not |
|---|---|---|
| Qingyan | China consumer assistant. Agreement: a generative AI product operated by Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. (paid agreement §1.1). Door: chatglm.cn | Not Coding Plan, not the API console |
| Z.ai chat | International consumer assistant. chat.z.ai title: Advanced AI Chatbot & Agent | Not the SDK tutorial on docs.z.ai |
| Z.ai (company usage) | zhipuai.cn uses Z.ai as both brand and one first-party product | Not "every Zhipu product is Z.ai" |
| ChatGLM | 2023 conversational model / older store copy (z.ai/company timeline; App Store) | Not the product URL you type today |
| GLM | Model family. Open-platform intro: General Language Model (docs.bigmodel.cn) | Not one app |
| GLM-5.2 | Flagship name on Qingyan and Z.ai pages on 2026-08-19; the research post hangs it on both chat and Coding Plan | Not "the chat picker has only this forever" |
| GLM Coding Plan | Subscription for Claude Code and similar tools (z.ai/subscribe) | Not Qingyan web setup |
| ZCode | Official coding tool (research/161) | Not the Chat tab on chat.z.ai |
| AutoGLM | Agent / report assistant on the company page and autoglm.zhipuai.cn | Not a nickname for one Qingyan mode — official pages list it as its own product |
| AutoClaw | First-party product on the company page; marketing copy is a local OpenClaw client | Not merely another spelling of AutoGLM — the company page lists both |
| CodeGeeX | Coding assistant in official news | Not Qingyan |
| BigModel | China open platform bigmodel.cn | Not the chat membership center |
| Qingying | Video-generation benefit named in the paid agreement | Not a separate handbook on this site |
Two legal entities
| Qingyan | Z.ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Product URL | chatglm.cn | chat.z.ai / z.ai |
| Operator in the legal text | Beijing Zhipu Huazhang Technology Co., Ltd. | JINGSHENG HENGXING TECHNOLOGY PTE.LTD (Terms) |
| Official "same login" claim | None | None |
So do not draw Qingyan membership, Z.ai login, Coding Plan, and an open-platform API key as one pool. The Qingyan agreement only says Qingyan membership and open-platform paid features are independent and can stack (§4.4). It does not say the international site shares that account.
An in-chat Agent is not a repo agent
Qingyan's homepage calls itself an Agent: understand the goal, call tools, turn answers into deliverables. Z.ai's description says build websites, write code, long-horizon tasks.
That is still a chat surface:
- No official "run Qingyan as a repo CLI" steps.
- Official repo / IDE coding sits on GLM Coding Plan and ZCode (research post, "Agent" section).
- A page or script in the thread does not become a git commit on your machine.
Analog: Qingyan / Z.ai chat ≈ Claude.ai. Coding Plan / ZCode power other coding tools. They are not this directory's Claude Code tutorial.
Do not write as fact
- "Qingyan and chat.z.ai share one account"
- "Free tier is N turns per day" (common on third-party sites; the agreement says trust the membership page)
- Treating one day's App Store RMB IAP table as the national price list
- Product name "ChatGLM web install of Coding Plan"
- Treating the
docs.z.aiAPI model table as the Qingyan dropdown