Tech Desk 
Feb 14, 2025
Baidu, China’s leading search engine company, has announced that its AI chatbot, Ernie Bot, will be available for free starting April 1. The company announced this decision to improve technology and lower operational costs.
The Ernie 4.0 AI model will be accessible to all users on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Baidu’s AI chatbot Ernie Bot
In response to the rising prominence of OpenAI's ChatGPT, Baidu launched Ernie Bot in 2023. The Chinese firm promoted Ernie Bot as an advanced AI capable of understanding and generating responses similar to those of humans.
However, Ernie Bot has struggled to achieve broad acceptance, with strong competition from AI players like DeepSeek and ByteDance’s Doubao chatbot.
DeepSeek, a rising AI startup in China, has gained popularity by offering free AI chatbot services that it claims match the performance of OpenAI’s GPT-4 while operating at a lower cost.
According to Aicpb.com, an AI tracking website, DeepSeek and Doubao have achieved greater user engagement than Ernie Bot.
Moreover, in an attempt to attract more users, Baidu introduced premium AI search features in late 2023, charging users 59.9 yuan ($8.18) per month for advanced AI-powered search capabilities.
However, along with making Ernie Bot free, Baidu has now announced the launch of an enhanced AI-powered search function, which will also be available at no cost starting April 1. This feature will offer better reasoning abilities and expert-level responses that will provide more accurate and efficient search results.
