Chinese search engine leader Baidu announced on Thursday that its artificial intelligence chatbot, Ernie Bot, will be available free of charge starting April 1, attributing this decision to improved technology and reduced costs. The AI service will be accessible at no cost to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms, as stated in a WeChat post by the company.
Below is a translated version of the post:
“Today, I would like to announce two good news to you:
- With the iteration and upgrade of Wenxin large models and the continuous reduction of costs, Wenxin Yiyan will be completely free from 0:00 on April 1st, and all PC and APP users can experience the latest models of the Wenxin series;
- Starting today, Wenxinyiyan has launched a deep search function ; this function alsoIt will be free to use from April 1st.
The deep search function has more powerful thinking planning and tool calling capabilities, can provide users with expert content responses, handle multi-scenario tasks, and achieve multi-modal input and output.”
Currently, users can experience the deep search function on Wenxin Yiyan’s official website, and the APP will be launched soon.
Baidu to offer Ernie AI chatbot for free starting April 1
Baidu is facing increasing competition in China’s AI sector, particularly from DeepSeek, which offers free AI chatbot services that it claims match the performance of leading U.S. systems like OpenAI’s models at lower operational costs. Despite being one of the early adopters in AI technology after the 2022 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Baidu has had difficulties achieving widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model. The company asserts that its latest version, Ernie 4.0, parallels the capabilities of OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Data from AI product tracker Aicpb.com indicates that Baidu’s AI offerings have fallen behind those of competitors such as ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot and newcomer DeepSeek. In late 2023, Baidu introduced premium features for its search engine based on advanced models, including Ernie 4.0, charging 59.9 yuan ($8.18) per month for these services.
Additionally, Baidu announced the release of an advanced search function that will also be freely available from April 1. This feature is designed to provide enhanced reasoning capabilities and tool integration for offering expert-level responses.
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Baidu’s declaration to make the Ernie AI model free represents a significant strategic shift aimed at regaining traction in the competitive landscape of next-generation artificial intelligence. Following this announcement, Baidu’s stock rose by as much as 7.9% in Hong Kong, marking its largest intraday gain since October.
This move could escalate a pricing war among major domestic players in the AI sector, including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd., which have been competing in this space since AI development accelerated in 2023. Although Baidu’s Ernie was among the first AI platforms approved for public rollout by Beijing, competitors like ByteDance’s Doubao have managed to attract more users.
DeepSeek has made a notable impact on the AI industry, reportedly training its models at a significantly lower cost than both U.S. and Chinese counterparts. This model is gaining traction among local agencies. Meanwhile, Alibaba has captured attention from both investors and users through its enhanced Qwen model, which has shown strong performance in comparisons with Meta Platforms Inc.’s Llama and DeepSeek’s V3 model in testing.
Featured image credit: Baidu Research
