BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - Baidu Inc. (BIDU) launched its latest foundation models-ERNIE 4.5, a native multimodal foundation model, and ERNIE X1, designed for deep-thinking reasoning. Both models are now available free of charge to individual users through the official ERNIE Bot platform, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
According to the company, ERNIE X1, a deep-thinking reasoning model with multimodal capabilities, matches the performance of DeepSeek R1 while operating at only half the price. Meanwhile, ERNIE 4.5, the company's latest foundation and native multimodal model, offers competitive pricing with input costs starting at just RMB 0.004 per thousand tokens and output costs at RMB 0.016 per thousand tokens.
Baidu stated that it plans to progressively integrate both ERNIE 4.5 and X1 into its product ecosystem. This integration will include Baidu Search, the Wenxiaoyan app, and other offerings, delivering a more versatile and enhanced experience to a broader base of individual users.
With the launch of ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, ERNIE Bot is now available to the public for free, ahead of the originally planned schedule. Earlier this year, the company announced that ERNIE Bot would become fully free for individual users starting April 1. For enterprise users and developers, ERNIE 4.5 is already accessible through APIs on Baidu AI Cloud's MaaS platform Qianfan, while ERNIE X1 is expected to join the platform soon.
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