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Baidu Ernie

From Baidu

China’s Leading Multimodal AI Assistant – ERNIE 5.0 Powers Advanced Reasoning, Native Omni-Modal Processing, and Massive Real-World Adoption
Tool Release Date

22 Jan 2026

Tool Users
200 Million+
0.0

Pricing Model

Starting Price

$0/Month

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About This AI

Baidu Ernie is the flagship AI chatbot and foundation model series from Baidu, with the latest ERNIE 5.0 released on January 22, 2026 as a natively omni-modal large language model boasting 2.4 trillion parameters.

It jointly models text, images, audio, and video in a unified autoregressive architecture, delivering superior multimodal understanding, generation, logical reasoning, creative content creation, factual accuracy, instruction following, agentic planning, tool use, and document/chart comprehension.

ERNIE 5.0 features ultra-sparse Mixture-of-Experts efficiency (activates less than 3 percent parameters per query), large context windows, reduced hallucinations, and strong performance rivaling global leaders like GPT-5 and Gemini in benchmarks, especially in Chinese-language and multimodal tasks.

Powered by Baidu’s ecosystem, it integrates into ERNIE Bot app/website, Baidu search, and Qianfan platform for developers with API access.

As of January 2026, Ernie Assistant (powered by ERNIE models) has surpassed 200 million monthly active users, demonstrating massive adoption in China.

Base access is free for individuals via ERNIE Bot, with premium API and enterprise features on Qianfan.

Optimized primarily for Chinese while competitive globally, it drives everyday chat, enterprise automation, content creation, education, and more in a regulated environment.

Key Features

  1. Native omni-modal architecture: Unified end-to-end modeling for text, images, audio, and video inputs/outputs without separate encoders
  2. 2.4 trillion parameters with ultra-sparse MoE: Activates less than 3 percent parameters per inference for high efficiency and performance
  3. Multimodal understanding and generation: Joint processing across language, vision, audio, and video for comprehensive reasoning
  4. Superior reasoning capabilities: Excels in logical, mathematical, coding, and knowledge-based tasks
  5. Advanced instruction following: Precise adherence to complex user prompts and multi-turn conversations
  6. Creative writing and content generation: High-quality text, multimodal storytelling, and artistic outputs
  7. Factual accuracy enhancements: Reduced hallucinations through improved knowledge integration
  8. Agentic planning and tool use: Supports autonomous multi-step task execution and external tool integration
  9. Document and chart comprehension: Strong performance on OCR, DocVQA, ChartQA for enterprise document tasks
  10. Multimodal input/output support: Handles combined text-image-audio-video queries and responses
  11. Large context window: Up to 128K tokens for long-form processing
  12. Integration with Baidu ecosystem: Available in ERNIE Bot app, search, and Qianfan platform for developers

Price Plans

  1. Free ($0): Core ERNIE Bot access including ERNIE 5.0 usage in chat interface, unlimited conversations with daily quotas on advanced features
  2. Qianfan API (Enterprise/Developer): Token-based pricing (approximately $0.85 per 1M input tokens and $3.40 per 1M output tokens for premium tier); lower tiers for lighter models; exact rates vary by volume

Pros

  1. Frontier-level multimodal performance: Matches or exceeds GPT-5 and Gemini in key benchmarks like document understanding and reasoning
  2. Highly efficient inference: MoE design enables massive scale with low computational overhead
  3. Strong in Chinese and multilingual tasks: Optimized for native Chinese while competitive globally
  4. Free base access for individuals: Core chatbot features available at no cost via ERNIE Bot
  5. Enterprise-ready via Qianfan: Robust API for developers with scalable deployment options
  6. Rapid iteration and updates: Frequent previews and releases show Baidu's aggressive advancement
  7. Massive user adoption: Over 200 million monthly active users demonstrate real-world reliability
  8. Reduced hallucinations: Improved factuality in responses compared to prior generations

Cons

  1. Primarily China-focused optimization: Best performance in Chinese language; English/multilingual may lag slightly behind Western leaders
  2. Limited global accessibility: Full features often require Chinese account or may face regional restrictions/VPN needs
  3. Proprietary model: Not open-source like some predecessors, limiting custom fine-tuning outside Baidu platforms
  4. API pricing for heavy use: Premium/enterprise access via Qianfan involves token-based costs
  5. No real-time video generation yet: Some advanced multimodal outputs like video still in preview or limited
  6. Potential censorship: Subject to Chinese regulations, which may restrict certain topics or responses
  7. Verbose outputs occasionally: Can produce longer responses requiring more processing

Use Cases

  1. Advanced research and reasoning: Solving complex math, coding problems, or scientific queries with multimodal context
  2. Content creation: Generating articles, stories, scripts, or creative multimodal media like illustrated narratives
  3. Enterprise document processing: Analyzing reports, charts, PDFs with visual QA and summarization
  4. Agent automation: Building AI agents for task planning, tool calls, and workflow orchestration
  5. Education and tutoring: Explaining concepts across text, diagrams, audio explanations
  6. Customer support integration: Multilingual chatbots handling image/audio queries in apps
  7. Creative brainstorming: Ideation for marketing, design, or product concepts with visual aids

Target Audience

  1. Chinese developers and enterprises: Leveraging Qianfan for scalable AI applications
  2. Global AI researchers: Testing frontier multimodal capabilities and benchmarks
  3. Content creators and writers: Needing high-quality creative and factual generation
  4. Business professionals: In document analysis, reporting, and decision support
  5. Students and educators: For learning complex subjects with multimodal explanations
  6. Tech enthusiasts: Exploring leading Chinese AI models and comparisons

How To Use

  1. Via ERNIE Bot website/app: Visit ernie.baidu.com, select ERNIE 5.0 from model dropdown, start chatting with text, upload images/audio/video for multimodal queries
  2. Sign up/login: Use Baidu account (may require phone verification; international users might need alternatives)
  3. Prompt effectively: Use detailed instructions, include multimodal inputs like 'Analyze this chart and explain trends'
  4. For developers: Access Qianfan platform, get API key, integrate via SDKs for custom apps
  5. Switch models: Toggle between ERNIE 5.0, 4.5 Turbo etc. for different needs/speeds
  6. Explore features: Try agent mode, tool calls, or creative modes in interface

How we rated Baidu Ernie

  • Performance: 4.8/5
  • Accuracy: 4.7/5
  • Features: 4.9/5
  • Cost-Efficiency: 4.8/5
  • Ease of Use: 4.6/5
  • Customization: 4.5/5
  • Data Privacy: 4.4/5
  • Support: 4.5/5
  • Integration: 4.7/5
  • Overall Score: 4.7/5

Baidu Ernie integration with other tools

  1. ERNIE Bot App/Website: Direct chat interface for individual users with multimodal input support
  2. Qianfan Platform: Developer API and ecosystem for building custom AI applications and integrations
  3. Baidu Ecosystem: Deep integration with Baidu Search, Maps, and other services for contextual enhancements
  4. Third-Party Apps: Potential embedding in partner products like Samsung devices or enterprise tools
  5. API SDKs: Supports integration into mobile/web apps for developers via Qianfan

Best prompts optimised for Baidu Ernie

  1. Analyze this uploaded chart image and explain the trends in sales data over the past year in detail, including key insights and recommendations
  2. Generate a creative story in Chinese about a futuristic city where AI and humans coexist peacefully, include vivid descriptions and dialogue
  3. Translate this English technical document to Chinese with precise terminology, maintaining formal academic style
  4. Plan a multi-step marketing campaign for a new smartphone launch, including social media strategy, budget allocation, and timeline
  5. Explain quantum computing concepts to a beginner using simple analogies, diagrams if possible, and step-by-step breakdown
Baidu Ernie powered by ERNIE 5.0 delivers frontier multimodal AI with strong reasoning, efficiency, and massive 200 million+ user adoption in China. Free base access makes it accessible, while Qianfan API supports enterprise needs. Excellent for Chinese-language tasks and multimodal work, though global access and censorship may limit some users. A top contender in the Asian AI landscape.

FAQs

  • What is Baidu Ernie?

    Baidu Ernie is China’s leading AI chatbot and foundation model series, with ERNIE 5.0 (released January 22, 2026) as the latest natively omni-modal model handling text, images, audio, and video.

  • When was ERNIE 5.0 released?

    ERNIE 5.0 was officially released on January 22, 2026, following previews and benchmarks in late 2025.

  • How many users does Baidu Ernie have?

    As of January 2026, Ernie Assistant (powered by ERNIE models) has surpassed 200 million monthly active users.

  • Is Baidu Ernie free to use?

    Yes, the basic ERNIE Bot interface with ERNIE 5.0 is free for individual users with usage limits; premium/API access via Qianfan is paid on a per-token basis.

  • What makes ERNIE 5.0 special?

    It features 2.4 trillion parameters, native omni-modal unified modeling, MoE efficiency (activates less than 3 percent parameters), and top performance in reasoning, multimodality, and Chinese tasks.

  • How does Baidu Ernie compare to global models?

    ERNIE 5.0 ranks highly on global benchmarks, often leading Chinese models and competing closely with GPT-5 and Gemini in multimodal and reasoning capabilities.

  • Can I use Baidu Ernie outside China?

    Access is possible via ernie.baidu.com, but full features may require a Baidu account and face regional restrictions; VPN often helps for international users.

  • What are the main use cases for Baidu Ernie?

    Ideal for research, content creation, enterprise document analysis, agent automation, education, customer support, and creative multimodal tasks, especially in Chinese contexts.

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