Zhipu's documentation says the sandbox and runtime environment of Managed Agents are free for a limited time until October 31, 2026, and Web Search and Web Fetch tool calls are free until the same date. Three other points stand out in the docs. The Beta is fully open, in the docs' words "API 与控制台均已全量开放" (both the API and the console are fully open). The supported models are the GLM-5.3 series: glm-5.3, glm-5.3-flash and glm-5.3-flashx. Billing is pay-as-you-go through the open platform API, and it does not currently support Coding Plan quota. As of October 22, Zhipu has not announced the product yet: there is no post from @Zai_org and nothing on the official blog. For developers who know Claude Managed Agents, it can serve as an alternative built on GLM models.

What Managed Agents is

According to the overview page, Managed Agents gives each session a cloud sandbox where an agent can call tools, work with files, run commands and keep going on long tasks. The docs list these built-in capabilities:

  • Bash: run shell commands inside the sandbox
  • File operations: read, write, edit and search files in the sandbox
  • MCP servers: connect external tool providers
  • Skills: defined in the agent together with the model and system prompt, and reused across sessions
  • Scheduled runs: scheduled deployments run an agent periodically on a cron schedule

An agent and an environment are reusable definitions, and a session is one actual run. The API design closely resembles Claude Managed Agents. The docs ask for a version header and a Beta header on every request, zai-beta: managed-agents-2026-09-22, and to use the sandbox tools an agent must explicitly include the toolset agent_toolset_20260601.

How billing works

The docs split costs into these parts:

  • Model usage: billed pay-as-you-go through the open platform API for whichever model the session calls (currently glm-5.3, glm-5.3-flash and glm-5.3-flashx), at the same price as standard inference for the model of the same name.
  • Coding Plan: the docs state that Managed Agents is billed pay-as-you-go through the open platform API and does not currently support Coding Plan quota. A Coding Plan subscription does not currently cover it.
  • Sandbox and runtime environment: free until October 31, 2026. Later billing rules will follow platform announcements.
  • Web Search and Web Fetch: tool call fees are free until October 31, 2026, then charged per call. Model tokens are still charged, and the unit price will follow an official announcement.
  • MCP: usage of your own MCP servers follows open platform announcements.

The docs also note that billing rules may change during the Beta, and that platform announcements and bills are authoritative.

What the free period covers

The free period does not make Managed Agents free to run. Until October 31, 2026, the sandbox and the Web Search and Web Fetch tool fees cost nothing, but every token the GLM-5.3 models process is billed at normal API prices. The docs do not yet give prices for the sandbox or the search tools after that date. Teams testing it now should watch token spend and check Zhipu's announcements before November.

For other free GLM offers, see Zhipu's AutoClaw free token offer and free GLM-5.3-Flash in OpenCode.