AI

Baidu makes Ernie Bot free and opens AI code

Baidu waives fees and opens Ernie Bot as open source to compete against DeepSeek and other AI rivals.

Eulerpool News Feb 26, 2025, 1:18 PM

Baidu will offer its AI chatbot Ernie Bot free of charge starting April 1 to address increased competition from DeepSeek and other providers.

The step signals a strategy change: In 2023, Baidu had demanded up to 59.9 Yuan (around $8.20) per month for advanced features. With 430 million users and the new free and open-source approach, Baidu wants to prominently position Ernie Bot again in the global AI race. Industry experts see the offensive as a direct response to DeepSeek's steep rise and to the free offering of ChatGPT, which Altman recently introduced in a new version.

The competition among Chinese tech companies like Tencent and Alibaba has intensified recently since Baidu launched its AI service at the end of 2022. However, the alleged advantage of the former internet pioneer was not sufficient to become the leading provider. With the free model and open-source path, Baidu is now consistently following the trend of making AI services as widely accessible as possible — in the hope of strengthening its own position and withstanding the pressure of innovation from home and abroad.

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