Baidu Qianfan

Score 7.6

Baidu Cloud's model and agent platform, home of the ERNIE family.

Built by: Baidu · China company
Categories: Platforms
Pricing: Usage-based（Model calls are billed per token; some components are billed separately. See the official site.）
Open source: No
Self-hostable: No
International version: No
Data leaves China: No

"Data leaves China" means whether your data may be transferred outside mainland China when using the product.

Overview

Qianfan is Baidu Cloud's model service platform, covering model APIs (the ERNIE family plus third-party open models), fine-tuning and evaluation, and AppBuilder for low-code agent building. Its advantages are integration with Baidu's own capabilities (search, maps, and other components) and accumulated compliance credentials in the government and state-owned enterprise market. It fits enterprises that specifically need ERNIE models, Baidu ecosystem components, or government procurement tracks. Compared with Bailian and Volcengine Ark, Qianfan has a less active developer community and less buzz around its models than Qwen or Doubao, yet it remains a common choice in government and enterprise projects. Data stays in Baidu Cloud's mainland data centers; there is no international version.