Chinese LLM API Pricing Comparison 2026
All 27 models from 10Chinese providers — DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, Doubao, ERNIE, Hunyuan, MiniMax, Spark and Baichuan. Prices in USD per million tokens, converted from official CNY list prices and checked against each provider’s pricing page. Last checked 2026-06-13.
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Cached | Context | Quality | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.5 Flash | 🇨🇳 Alibaba Qwen | $0.030 | $0.30 | — | 131K | — | 2026-06-13 |
| Qwen3.5 Plus | 🇨🇳 Alibaba Qwen | $0.12 | $0.71 | — | 131K | — | 2026-06-13 |
| Doubao 1.5 Pro | 🇨🇳 ByteDance Doubao | $0.12 | $0.30 | $0.024 | 256K | — | 2026-06-01 |
| 文心 ERNIE 4.5 Turbo | 🇨🇳 Baidu ERNIE | $0.12 | $0.47 | $0.030 | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| 混元 TurboS | 🇨🇳 Tencent Hunyuan | $0.12 | $0.30 | — | 256K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 🇨🇳 DeepSeek | $0.15 | $0.30 | $0.003 | 1M | 47 | 2026-06-13 |
| 文心 ERNIE X1 Turbo | 🇨🇳 Baidu ERNIE | $0.15 | $0.59 | — | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| 混元 T1 | 🇨🇳 Tencent Hunyuan | $0.15 | $0.59 | — | 64K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| DeepSeek V3.2 | 🇨🇳 DeepSeek | $0.30 | $1.18 | $0.074 | 128K | — | 2026-06-13 |
| GLM-4.7 | 🇨🇳 Zhipu AI (GLM) | $0.30 | $1.18 | $0.059 | 200K | — | 2026-06-11 |
| Spark X2 Flash | 🇨🇳 iFlytek Spark | $0.30 | $0.30 | — | 200K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| Spark Ultra | 🇨🇳 iFlytek Spark | $0.30 | $0.30 | — | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| Baichuan M2 | 🇨🇳 Baichuan AI | $0.30 | $2.95 | — | 192K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| MiniMax M2.7 | 🇨🇳 MiniMax | $0.31 | $1.24 | $0.062 | 1M | 50 | 2026-06-05 |
| Doubao 1.6 | 🇨🇳 ByteDance Doubao | $0.35 | $3.54 | — | 256K | — | 2026-06-01 |
| Qwen3 Max | 🇨🇳 Alibaba Qwen | $0.37 | $1.48 | — | 131K | — | 2026-06-13 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | 🇨🇳 DeepSeek | $0.44 | $0.89 | $0.004 | 1M | 52 | 2026-06-13 |
| Spark X2 | 🇨🇳 iFlytek Spark | $0.44 | $0.44 | — | 200K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| 混元 2.0 Think | 🇨🇳 Tencent Hunyuan | $0.59 | $2.35 | — | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| GLM-5 | 🇨🇳 Zhipu AI (GLM) | $0.59 | $2.66 | $0.15 | 200K | — | 2026-06-11 |
| 文心 ERNIE 5.1 | 🇨🇳 Baidu ERNIE | $0.59 | $2.66 | — | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| MiniMax M3 | 🇨🇳 MiniMax | $0.62 | $2.48 | $0.12 | 1M | 55 | 2026-06-05 |
| Baichuan M3 Plus | 🇨🇳 Baichuan AI | $0.74 | $1.33 | — | 192K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| GLM-5.1 | 🇨🇳 Zhipu AI (GLM) | $0.89 | $3.54 | $0.19 | 200K | 51 | 2026-06-11 |
| Kimi K2.6 | 🇨🇳 Moonshot (Kimi) | $0.96 | $3.98 | $0.16 | 262K | 54 | 2026-06-13 |
| Spark Pro | 🇨🇳 iFlytek Spark | $1.03 | $1.03 | — | 128K | — | 2026-06-05 |
| Qwen3.7 Max | 🇨🇳 Alibaba Qwen | $1.77 | $5.31 | — | 1M | 57 | 2026-06-13 |
USD per million tokens · Converted at 1 USD = ¥6.7765(daily-calibrated) · Green = cheapest · Quality = Artificial Analysis intelligence index · Source: official provider pricing pages · For reference only.
The short version
Cheapest input: Qwen3.5 Flash at $0.030 per million input tokens. Cheapest output: Qwen3.5 Flash at $0.30 per million output tokens.
Why Chinese models are worth a look. Flagship models from DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi sit near the top of public leaderboards while pricing well below Western flagships — output-token prices are often an order of magnitude lower. For translation, summarization, classification and agent workloads where you control the evaluation, the savings are real.
What to watch.Some providers bill only in CNY or require a mainland-China identity for signup; international endpoints (DeepSeek, Alibaba Model Studio, Moonshot, Zhipu) are the practical route for overseas teams. Latency and data-residency requirements deserve the same scrutiny you’d give any provider — we compared all five providers’ legal entities, data residency and training policies in the Chinese AI API Trust Index.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest Chinese LLM API in 2026?
By input price, Qwen3.5 Flash (Alibaba Qwen) is currently the cheapest at $0.030 per million input tokens. By output price, Qwen3.5 Flash is the cheapest at $0.30 per million output tokens. Prices are converted from official CNY list prices at 1 USD = ¥6.7765.
Can I use Chinese LLM APIs outside China?
Mostly yes. DeepSeek, Alibaba (Qwen via Model Studio), Moonshot (Kimi) and Zhipu (GLM) all offer international endpoints with English documentation and card payment. Some providers — for example Baidu ERNIE and iFlytek Spark — primarily target the domestic market, so check signup requirements before committing.
How do Chinese LLM API prices compare with GPT-5.5 or Claude?
Chinese models are aggressively priced: flagship-level models from DeepSeek, Qwen and Kimi often cost an order of magnitude less per output token than Western flagships, and budget tiers go far lower. See our full comparison table for a side-by-side view with OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models.
How accurate are these prices?
Prices are checked against each provider's official pricing page — most vendors are re-verified automatically every day, the rest are manually monitored. Last check: 2026-06-13. CNY prices are converted to USD at a daily-calibrated rate (currently 1 USD = ¥6.7765).
Want the full picture with GPT-5.5, Claude and Gemini in the same table?