Chinese AI Models Overview [August 2026]
A permanent overview of major Chinese models — DeepSeek, Qwen (Alibaba), GLM (Zhipu/Z.ai), Kimi (Moonshot), MiniMax and more. We prioritize primary sources (official announcements & pricing pages); where official figures are unavailable, third-party reporting/evaluations are clearly attributed. No speculation or rumors. See Pricing Comparison and the DeepSeek guide. 日本語版
Why track Chinese AI
Open weights and aggressive pricing give these models outsized reach in both API and self-hosted use.
- Origin of the "DeepSeek Shock" — DeepSeek R1 (Jan 2025) shipped o1-class reasoning at low cost under an MIT license, resetting industry pricing and release strategy.
- The open-weight front line — Qwen, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax and DeepSeek have all released flagship-class open models, many under MIT / Apache 2.0-style licenses.
- Price competitiveness — DeepSeek's peak/off-peak model and low-cost Qwen/GLM flagships can cost a fraction of comparable Western models.
- Caveats — Self-reported benchmarks can diverge from independent evaluations. Check data-sovereignty, regional and ToS considerations too.
Major labs & flagships
DeepSeek (深度求索)
China's most prominent lab after the R1 "DeepSeek Shock." Current: V4 Pro (GA 2026-08-13) and V4 Flash (public beta). 1M context, MIT license. Peak/off-peak pricing since 2026-08-16. Guide · Pricing.
Qwen (通义千问 / Alibaba Cloud)
Alibaba's open-weight family. Flagship Qwen3.8-Max (GA 2026-08-03) is a 2.4T-parameter MoE with 1M context. Qwen3 series is Apache 2.0.
GLM (Zhipu AI / Z.ai)
Tsinghua-affiliated lab. GLM-5.2 (2026-06-16) is a 744B MoE under MIT. GLM-5.3 (2026-08-14) ships at the same price. First foundation-model AI to IPO (Hong Kong, Jan 2026).
Kimi (Moonshot AI / 月之暗面)
Beijing startup. Kimi K3 (2026-07-16) is the largest open-weights model at 2.8T parameters. K2.6 (Apr 2026) is reported to match GPT-5.5 on SWE-bench Pro.
MiniMax
M3 (May/June 2026) is a multimodal MoE with 1M context. M2.7 open-sourced 2026-04-12. Low-cost, agent-oriented models.
ByteDance Doubao / Baidu ERNIE / Tencent Hunyuan
ByteDance's Doubao (豆包) is a leading consumer assistant (closed). Baidu's ERNIE 5.x is omnimodal (only ERNIE 4.5 is open-source). Tencent open-sourced Hunyuan-A13B.
Model pricing & open weights (indicative)
USD per 1M tokens. DeepSeek verified on the Pricing Comparison. Others reflect published figures from official announcements/docs, with third-party reporting/evaluations attributed, as of 2026-08-29 (routers and regions may differ).
| Model | Provider | Input | Output | Open weights | Notes / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | DeepSeek | $0.66 / $1.32 (off/peak) | $1.98 / $3.96 (off/peak) | MIT | Cache miss. Peak/off-peak (effective 2026-08-16). Guide |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | DeepSeek | $0.22 / $0.44 | $0.66 / $1.32 | MIT | Public beta. Lightweight |
| Qwen3.8-Max | Alibaba | $2.00 | $6.00 | Partial (text: custom license) | 2.4T MoE, 1M ctx. Launch pricing (MarkTechPost report) |
| Qwen3.8-27B | Alibaba | — | — | Apache 2.0 | Smaller self-hostable checkpoint |
| GLM-5.2 / 5.3 | Zhipu (Z.ai) | $1.40 | $4.40 | MIT (5.2) | 5.3 weights not public as of retrieval. z.ai docs |
| Kimi K2.6 | Moonshot | $0.95 | $4.00 | Modified MIT | Reported (Miraflow). Said to match GPT-5.5 on SWE-bench Pro |
| Kimi K3 | Moonshot | — | — | Open (2.8T) | Released 2026-07-16; largest open weights |
| MiniMax M3 | MiniMax | $0.30 | $1.20 | Open | List $0.60/$2.40 with "permanent 50% off" (Puter/AA) |
DeepSeek in depth
We maintain a hands-on guide for DeepSeek.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro × GitHub Copilot guide — setup, pricing, a real-world comparison vs Claude Sonnet, FAQ.
- DeepSeek pricing (peak/off-peak) — current V4 Pro / V4 Flash rates and time-window details.
- Release timeline — from R1 to V4 Pro GA.
Update log
This page is updated continuously; newest entries appear first.
- 2026-08-29Page created. Added an overview of DeepSeek, Qwen, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax and other Chinese models, including DeepSeek peak/off-peak pricing and Qwen3.8-Max, GLM-5.x, Kimi K3, MiniMax M3 highlights, verified against primary sources.
⚠️ Disclaimer
- Pricing and specs prioritize official pages/announcements (with third-party reporting attributed) as of 2026-08-29 and may change without notice. Always check official pages before contracting.
- Benchmark figures exist in both self-reported and independent forms and may diverge. This page lists only what could be verified.
- This site is informational only. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by any provider. All trademarks belong to their owners.