GLM-Image: First Open-Source Industrial-Grade
Auto-Regressive Image Generation Model

GLM-Image combines a 9B autoregressive generator with a 7B diffusion decoder for exceptional text rendering and knowledge-intensive generation. Experience the power of 16B parameters optimized for high-fidelity image creation.

Text Rendering Knowledge-Intensive 16B Parameters Open Source

Latest Insights & Guides

Explore in-depth articles about GLM-Image capabilities, techniques, and best practices.

Jan 14, 2026 12 min read

Mastering Text Rendering with GLM-Image

Learn how GLM-Image achieves exceptional text rendering accuracy with the Glyph-byT5 encoder, especially for Chinese characters.

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Jan 14, 2026 15 min read

Knowledge-Intensive Image Generation

Discover how GLM-Image excels at complex instruction following and factual accuracy for educational and technical content.

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Jan 14, 2026 14 min read

Advanced Image Editing Techniques

Explore GLM-Image's block-causal attention mechanism for precise image editing, style transfer, and identity preservation.

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Try GLM-Image Demo

Experience GLM-Image's powerful capabilities with our free online demo. Generate high-quality images with exceptional text rendering and knowledge-intensive content.

Core Features of GLM-Image

GLM-Image delivers exceptional performance across multiple dimensions, from text rendering to knowledge-intensive generation.

Exceptional Text Rendering

GLM-Image achieves 0.9788 accuracy on Chinese text rendering (LongText-Bench ZH) and 0.9557 on English text. Perfect for creating posters, infographics, and multilingual content with precise text integration.

Hybrid Architecture

Combines a 9B autoregressive generator with a 7B diffusion decoder for progressive generation. The model first establishes layout with low-resolution tokens, then adds high-resolution details.

Knowledge-Intensive Generation

GLM-Image excels at complex instruction following with factual accuracy. Ideal for educational content, technical diagrams, and creative work requiring intricate information representation.

High-Resolution Output

Generate images at native resolutions from 1024px to 2048px. GLM-Image produces print-quality images with exceptional detail and clarity for professional applications.

Image Editing & Style Transfer

Leverages block-causal attention for precise image editing capabilities. Transform photos with style transfer, enhance images, and create artistic variations while preserving key details.

Identity Preservation

Maintain multi-subject consistency across generations. Perfect for character design, brand consistency, and projects requiring recognizable subjects across multiple images.

GLM-Image Performance Showcase

GLM-Image demonstrates exceptional performance across industry benchmarks, particularly excelling in text rendering accuracy.

Benchmark Comparison

Benchmark GLM-Image Competitor Avg Improvement
CVTG-2K Word Accuracy 0.9116 0.7850 +16.1%
LongText-Bench EN 0.9557 0.8920 +7.1%
LongText-Bench ZH 0.9788 0.8650 +13.2%
OneIG-Bench 0.528 0.512 +3.1%
DPG-Bench 84.78 82.45 +2.8%
TIIF-Bench (Short) 81.01 78.30 +3.5%

* Competitor averages based on comparable open-source models. GLM-Image consistently outperforms in text rendering tasks.

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Text Rendering

Create images with precise text integration in multiple languages, perfect for posters and marketing materials.

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Style Transfer

Transform images with artistic styles while maintaining subject identity and key visual elements.

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Educational Content

Generate knowledge-intensive visuals for educational materials with accurate information representation.

Technical Innovations in GLM-Image

GLM-Image incorporates cutting-edge architectural innovations for superior image generation performance.

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Semantic-VQ Tokenization

16Γ— compression ratio with semantic preservation. Superior convergence properties compared to traditional VQVAE approaches.

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Progressive Generation

Hierarchical token generation: low-resolution layout first (~256 tokens), then high-resolution details (1K-4K tokens).

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Glyph-byT5 Encoder

Character-level encoding for exceptional text rendering accuracy, especially for Chinese characters and complex scripts.

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Block-Causal Attention

Maintains high-frequency details during image editing while reducing computational overhead for efficient processing.

Quick Start with GLM-Image

Get started with GLM-Image in minutes. Install the required packages and start generating high-quality images.

Installation

pip install git+https://github.com/huggingface/transformers.git
pip install git+https://github.com/huggingface/diffusers.git

System Requirements

GPU

80GB+ VRAM or multi-GPU setup

Python

Version 3.8 or higher

Basic Usage

import torch
from diffusers.pipelines.glm_image import GlmImagePipeline

pipe = GlmImagePipeline.from_pretrained(
    "zai-org/GLM-Image",
    torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16,
    device_map="cuda"
)

prompt = "A beautiful landscape with mountains and a lake"
image = pipe(
    prompt=prompt,
    height=32 * 32,
    width=36 * 32,
    num_inference_steps=50,
    guidance_scale=1.5
).images[0]

image.save("output.png")

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about GLM-Image and its capabilities.

GLM-Image is the first open-source industrial-grade discrete auto-regressive image generation model with 16B parameters (9B autoregressive + 7B diffusion decoder). It excels at text rendering, especially Chinese characters, and knowledge-intensive content generation.

GLM-Image uses the Glyph-byT5 text encoder, which provides exceptional accuracy for text rendering in images. It achieves 0.9788 accuracy on Chinese text (LongText-Bench ZH) and 0.9557 on English text (LongText-Bench EN), outperforming other models.

GLM-Image requires a GPU with 80GB+ VRAM or a multi-GPU setup. It also requires Python 3.8 or higher and the latest stable version of PyTorch. The model's large parameter count (16B) necessitates significant computational resources.

GLM-Image combines a 9B autoregressive generator with a 7B diffusion decoder. The autoregressive component first generates low-resolution tokens (~256) to establish the layout, then the diffusion decoder adds high-resolution details (1K-4K tokens) for the final image.

Yes! GLM-Image is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows for commercial use. You can use GLM-Image in your commercial projects, modify it, and distribute it, as long as you comply with the license terms.

Knowledge-intensive generation refers to GLM-Image's ability to follow complex instructions with factual accuracy. This makes it ideal for creating educational content, technical diagrams, and images that require accurate representation of intricate information.

GLM-Image outperforms comparable models in text rendering tasks, achieving 0.9116 on CVTG-2K Word Accuracy (16.1% improvement over competitors). It also excels in Chinese text rendering with 0.9788 accuracy, making it the best choice for multilingual content creation.

Yes, GLM-Image can be fine-tuned for specific domains or styles. The model's architecture supports transfer learning, allowing you to adapt it to your specific needs while maintaining its core capabilities in text rendering and knowledge-intensive generation.