Baidu, a leading Chinese tech company, has initiated a significant shift in the AI industry by launching two new models, ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, sparking an AI price war.
ERNIE 4.5, a native multimodal model, outperforms GPT-4.5 in various benchmarks while being remarkably affordable, priced at just 1% of GPT-4.5’s cost.
Specifically, ERNIE 4.5 offers input costs at $0.55 per 1 million tokens and output costs at $2.20 per 1 million tokens, compared to GPT-4.5’s much higher rates of $75 and $150 per 1 million tokens, respectively.
This drastic price reduction makes advanced AI accessible to a broader audience.ERNIE X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model, matches the capabilities of DeepSeek R1 but at half the price, with input costs at $0.28 per 1 million tokens and output costs at $1.1 per 1 million tokens.
Both models boast multimodal capabilities, enabling them to process text, images, audio, and video, enhancing their versatility.
ERNIE 4.5 also demonstrates advanced features, such as analyzing audio, summarizing documents, solving complex problems, and even suggesting stylish decor, showcasing its broad applicability.
This move by Baidu reflects China’s strategy to dominate the AI market through competitive pricing and high performance, potentially setting new standards for affordability and accessibility in the sector.
The introduction of these models, freely accessible to individual users via Baidu’s platform, underscores a push to increase market penetration and challenge global AI leaders like OpenAI.
The combination of superior performance at minimal cost has ignited discussions about the future of AI accessibility, positioning Baidu as a key player in the intensifying global AI competition.
This development highlights a transformative moment in the industry, where cost-effective, high-performing AI could reshape technological innovation and adoption worldwide.
