Price checkPer per million tokens
Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1)CustomEnterpriseCustom
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All Baidu ERNIE API Plans & Pricing

Plan Monthly Annual Best For
View all features by plan (compare side-by-side)

Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1)

  • ERNIE 4.5 Turbo: premium flagship
  • ERNIE 4 Turbo: balanced cost/performance
  • ERNIE X1 (reasoning): competitive with DeepSeek R1
  • Strong Chinese-language performance

Enterprise

  • Volume discounts
  • Private deployment
See Baidu ERNIE API Plans
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Quick Answer
Last verified:
Medium confidence

Baidu ERNIE API costs $0.10 to $10 per per million tokens as of July 2026, with 2 plans available. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: No free tier available

Baidu ERNIE API offers 2 pricing tiers: Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1), Enterprise. The Enterprise plan is enterprise chinese-market deployments.

Compared to other llm api providers software, Baidu ERNIE API is positioned at the budget-friendly price point.

  • 4 documented hidden costs beyond list price
  • Contracts auto-renew — Midway unsubscription (early termination) is not supported for "Reserved Instance" products; users can cancel their ERNIE Bot account through the provided interface.
Last verified:

How much does Baidu ERNIE API cost?

Baidu ERNIE API pricing starts at $0.10/per million tokens across 2 plans, with enterprise pricing available on request. Plans include Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1) (custom pricing), Enterprise (custom pricing).

Baidu ERNIE API Pricing Overview

Baidu ERNIE API has 2 pricing plans ranging from $0.10 to $10/per million tokens. The Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1) plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for china-market apps and chinese-first workloads. The Enterprise plan requires contacting sales for a custom quote and is designed for enterprise chinese-market deployments.

Baidu ERNIE API contracts auto-renew.

There are at least 4 documented hidden costs beyond Baidu ERNIE API's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.

This pricing was last verified in May 19, 2026.

See Baidu ERNIE API Plans

Baidu ERNIE API uses pay-as-you-go token-based pricing with no fixed monthly fee under the Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1) tier. Input pricing across the ERNIE 4.5 model family ranges from $0.07/1M tokens for the 21B parameter models to $0.42/1M tokens for the VL 424B flagship, with output tokens priced at $0.28–$1.25/1M tokens depending on model. Enterprise pricing is available on a custom-quote basis for high-volume deployments.

How Baidu ERNIE API Pricing Compares

Compare Baidu ERNIE API pricing against top alternatives in LLM API Providers.

Groq $0-$3.0/per million tokens Compare → Together AI $0.03-$9.95/per million tokens / hour Compare → Fireworks AI $0-$9/per million tokens / hour Compare →

Usage-Based Rates

Per-unit pricing for Baidu ERNIE API API usage.

Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1)

Model Input Output Cached Per
ernie-4-5-turbo 128K ctx $1.10 $4.40 — 1M tokens
ernie-4-turbo 128K ctx $0.400 $1.60 — 1M tokens
ernie-x1 32K ctx $0.280 $1.10 — 1M tokens
  • International tier billing in USD; Mainland tier uses CNY (different rates)

Compare Baidu ERNIE API vs Alternatives

Before committing to Baidu ERNIE API, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.

VSGroq
Free

Prototyping and evaluation

Full comparison
VSTogether AI
From $0.03/per million tokens / hour

Variable-volume API usage

Full comparison
VSFireworks AI
Free

Variable-volume API usage

Full comparison

All Baidu ERNIE API alternatives & migration guides

What Companies Actually Pay for Baidu ERNIE API

Median per-1M-token pricing across 5 models
Input $0.140/1M
Output $0.560/1M
Flagship models in this provider's catalog
Model Input /1M Output /1M Blended /1M
Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B $0.420 $1.25 $0.840
Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 300B A47B $0.280 $1.10 $0.690
Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B $0.140 $0.560 $0.350
Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking $0.070 $0.280 $0.180
Baidu: ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B $0.070 $0.280 $0.180
Review scores
Third-party review aggregates, as of Jul 2026
Top pricing complaints
Censorship and Content RestrictionsLimited Availability and Language Barrier Outside ChinaInaccurate Information/HallucinationsCreative Writing Limitations
Source: OpenRouter API — medians aggregated from 5 models routed. Reflects router-surface pricing (may include modest markup vs direct provider rates).

How Baidu ERNIE API Pricing Compares

Software Starting Price Top Price
Baidu ERNIE API $0.1/per million tokens $10/per million tokens
Amazon Bedrock $0.07/per million tokens $75/per million tokens
Anyscale $0.15/per million tokens $5/per million tokens
Cerebras Inference API $0.1/per million tokens $6/per million tokens
Claude API $0.03/per million tokens $75/per million tokens
Cloudflare Workers AI Free $4.881/per million tokens

Detailed pricing comparisons:

Browse all LLM API Providers pricing →

4 Baidu ERNIE API Hidden Costs Beyond the List Price

Beyond the listed price, Baidu ERNIE API has at least 4 documented hidden costs that can significantly increase total cost of ownership.

Watch for 4 hidden costs
  • Integration and Development
    medium 1 source
    industry "Baidu AI Cloud is responsible for the underlying technical architecture and software operation, but users are responsible for third-party applications installed on their systems."
  • Dedicated Instance
    high 1 source
    industry "These operate on a prepaid billing model, and while specific ERNIE API dedicated instance pricing isn't detailed, general DCC services may offer discounts for longer commitments (e.g., purchasing 10 months of service might grant one year of access)."
  • Data Management and Storage
    low 1 source
    industry "For general prepaid Baidu AI Cloud services, auto-renewal can be enabled, with payments processed at intervals (7, 5, 3, 1, or 0 days) before expiration."
  • QPS Limits
    medium 1 source
    industry "QPS Limits and Paid Plans: Free tiers or basic plans may have Query Per Second (QPS) limits, which can be increased with paid plans."
Tip

Ask your Baidu ERNIE API sales rep about these costs upfront. Getting them in writing before signing can save you from surprise charges later.

Full hidden costs breakdown →

Intelligence sourced from 1 independent sources
industry
Key claims include inline source attribution. Data verified against multiple independent sources. 6 source citations total.

Baidu ERNIE API Contract Terms

Baidu ERNIE API contracts auto-renew. Changes require Midway unsubscription (early termination) is not supported for "Reserved Instance" products; users can cancel their ERNIE Bot account through the provided interface.. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.

Contract Terms
Auto-Renewal Yes
Cancellation Notice Midway unsubscription (early termination) is not supported for "Reserved Instance" products; users can cancel their ERNIE Bot account through the provided interface.
Minimum Commitment The prevailing model for ERNIE API access is pay-as-you-go, suggesting flexibility without strict minimum commitments for general API usage.
Based on 1 verified source

Baidu ERNIE API Pricing FAQ

01 How is Baidu ERNIE API priced?

Baidu ERNIE API uses pay-as-you-go token-based pricing with no fixed monthly fee. Via the Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1) tier, costs depend on model size: smaller 21B parameter models start at $0.07/1M input tokens and $0.28/1M output tokens, while the largest VL 424B model runs $0.42/1M input and $1.25/1M output tokens. Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted.

02 What ERNIE 4.5 models are available via the API and what do they cost?

Five ERNIE 4.5 models are available: ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B ($0.07 input / $0.28 output per 1M tokens, 120K context), ERNIE 4.5 21B A3B Thinking ($0.07 / $0.28 per 1M tokens, 131K context), ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B ($0.14 / $0.56 per 1M tokens, 30K context), ERNIE 4.5 300B A47B ($0.28 / $1.10 per 1M tokens, 123K context), and ERNIE 4.5 VL 424B A47B ($0.42 / $1.25 per 1M tokens, 123K context). Prices reflect OpenRouter routing and may include a modest markup over direct API pricing.

03 Does Baidu ERNIE API offer a free tier or trial?

Based on available data, Baidu ERNIE API does not offer a public free tier. All access under the Pay-as-you-go (ERNIE 4.5, 4 Turbo, X1) plan is billed per token consumed. Enterprise agreements with custom pricing are available for high-volume use cases.

04 Which ERNIE model offers the best price-to-capability tradeoff?

The provider median across all five ERNIE 4.5 models is $0.14/1M input tokens and $0.56/1M output tokens, represented by the ERNIE 4.5 VL 28B A3B model. The 21B models (both standard and Thinking variants) undercut this median at $0.07/$0.28 per 1M tokens, making them the most cost-efficient entry points. The 300B and VL 424B flagship models carry higher pricing ($0.28–$0.42 input / $1.10–$1.25 output per 1M tokens) and are suited for workloads requiring larger parameter counts or multimodal (VL) capabilities.

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