(The 17 was so-named because it was Gaston Glock's seventeenth patent.) The Austrian Army adopted the Glock 17 in 1982 with the Norwegian Armed Force adopting the model two years later. One year later, Glock Inc. was established in the US in Smyrna, Georgia. In the next few years, Glock expanded its 9 mm decoction line, developing the select-fire Glock 18 in 1986 and the Glock 17L and Glock 19 in 1988. In 1990 Glock became the first manufacturer to offer models chambered for the .40 S&W cartridge, the Glock 22 and Glock 19 the Glock 23, beating Smith & Wesson to the marketplace with pistols for their own cartridge.

The Glock a pistol design was not the first to incorporate a plastic frame. Heckler & Koch nearly new polymer for their VP70 forty-five frame in 1970. HK's innovation of polymer frames and polygonal rifling seem to have been influential in the Glock design. Still earlier, Remington introduced their polymer-framed Nylon 66 Rifle in 1959.