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Doubao (豆包) is China’s most-used AI assistant.
It’s made by tech giant ByteDance (字节跳动), the brand behind short video social media platforms Douyin (抖音) and TikTok. And also Seedance, the AI video generation model integrated into the Doubao app.
By March 2026, Doubao had 345 million monthly active users, and is by far China’s most used AI assistant.
We’ve discussed its main competitors before in this newsletter which are DeepSeek, Alibaba’s Qwen (千问), Tencent’s Yuanbao (腾讯元宝), and Baidu’s Wenxin Assistant (文心助手) also known as Ernie Bot.
So far these services have been mainly free. Ernie Bot is the only app which has experimented with paid offerings, introducing a subscription of 59.9 yuan per month in late 2023. But they eventually backtracked following a customer backlash, making it completely free from April 1, 2025.
Until now, Doubao has followed the same free model. But on May 4, a statement appeared on its App Store page announcing a paid subscription:
“To better serve our professional community, Doubao is introducing a Premium Tier.
This paid version offers enhanced value-added services alongside our standard free tier, providing a tailored experience for users with more demanding workflows.”
为更好地服务专业用户，豆包将在免费版的基础上，推出包含更多增值服务的付费版本，以满足不同用户的差异化需求。
According to ByteDance there are now three pricing tiers in their premium offering: a standard plan at 68 yuan a month, an enhanced plan at 200 yuan, and a professional plan at 500 yuan per month.
Although its prices are much cheaper than international equivalents such as Chat GPt and Claude, the news of the announcement immediately shot to the top of Weibo’s trending list.
Some people said they intended to “uninstall the app if Doubao is no longer free” (只要收费就卸载). Others pointed out that overseas AI products have long offered tiered pricing, and China is simply falling into line. And others commented that for Chinese users, “the AI free lunch may be over” (AI免费午餐可能没了).
Some also asked the question:
“What makes an AI tool worth 68 yuan a month?”
AI凭什么值68块钱一个月？
Related
That’s a difficult one for many users in China to answer or quantify because, to date, they have enjoyed free use of all these apps.
And for the past two years, China’s AI giants have been fighting a “subsidy war” (补贴战) burning cash to attract users. Alibaba even spent 3 billion yuan handing out bubble tea vouchers to pull users into Qwen in the lead up to this year’s Spring Festival.
But developing AI tools is an expensive business needing heavy investment.
ByteDance saw its net profit fall more than 70% in 2025, dragged down by AI spending. The company invested over 150 billion yuan of capital expenditure that year in AI, with around 90 billion of that on AI computing power alone.
Memory chip prices are surging too, forecast to jump between 63% and 75% this year.
And apps like Doubao are expensive to run. By March 2026, Doubao’s daily usage had hit 120 trillion tokens (the “raw material” AI runs on). This is equivalent to a doubling in usage in just three months, with monthly computing costs approaching one billion yuan.
So as costs rise the makers of AI products face a choice. They can either remain free but degrade the experience over time until users start complaining that “the AI is getting stupider” (AI越来越笨).
Or find a way to monetise.
Chinese internet companies traditionally make their money through the “three horses of the carriage” (三驾马车): value-added services, advertising, and e-commerce.
Pivot toward monetisation to pass on the cost — either by embedding ads directly into AI outputs, where the advertiser foots the bill, or through subscription models, where the cost falls on the user directly.
探索AI商业化，让用户来承担Token成本，比如在AI结果中塞广告，羊毛出在猪身上，再比如AI收费，羊毛出在羊身上。
The view inside China is that all three will eventually find their way into AI.
But advertising risks compromising the quality and neutrality of the advice these apps provide, which is a line Chinese tech companies have so far been reluctant to cross.
So for a product that functions as an assistant, as a creative tool, and as a chat companion, subscriptions are the natural fit.
With soaring chip costs, exponential usage growth, and shareholders keen to see a return on years of AI investment, the pressure on ByteDance and others to monetise has become impossible to ignore:
“ByteDance’s shareholders are keen to see some return, after having invested so much into AI.”
字节的股东们估计也急了，投了这么多钱，总得看到回报吧。
So Doubao has finally made that first move.
And that’s what we’re exploring this week!
Favourite Five
1. 造血 zào xiě
generate revenue, become financially self-sustaining
当算力成本的全链条上涨成为不可逆的趋势，大模型从“免费圈地”走向“收费造血”，便成了无法回避的生存必答题 - With the inevitable surge of chip costs, LLM providers realised that they have no choice but to pivot from capturing the market to generating margins. [1]
2. 财大气粗 cái dà qì cū
wealthy and powerful, financially strong
财大气粗的豆包也要探索收费模式了 - Even the well-funded Doubao has started exploring paid business models. [2]
3. 羊毛出在羊身上 yáng máo chū zài yáng shēn shang
the cost is ultimately borne by the user; you end up paying one way or another
比如在AI结果中塞广告，羊毛出在猪身上，再比如AI收费，羊毛出在羊身上 - Some are experimenting with embedding ads directly into AI outputs—the classic “indirect monetisation” play where the advertiser foots the bill. Others are moving toward straight-up subscription models, where they pass the cost directly onto the end user. [2]
Related:
羊毛出在猪身上 yáng máo chū zài zhū shēn shang – making someone else pay the cost
4. 天下没有免费的午餐 tiān xià méi yǒu miǎn fèi de wǔ cān
there’s no free lunch
在商言商，天下没有免费的午餐，AI 收费早晚的事儿 - From a business perspective, there’s no such thing as a free lunch; charging for AI usage is only a matter of time. [3]
5. 一棒子打死 yí bàng zi dǎ sǐ
to completely dismiss, to condemn outright
话说回来，吐槽归吐槽，但也别一棒子打死 - That said, complaints are one thing, but don’t dismiss it outright. [3]
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Consuming the Conversation
Useful Words
6. 悄然 qiǎo rán
quietly, unnoticed
这一消息源于豆包在苹果App Store页面悄然更新的付费订阅服务声明 - This news came from Doubao’s recently updated paid subscription service notice on its Apple App Store page. [1]
7. 炸锅 zhà guō
to explode with reactions, cause an uproar
对于豆包收费，网友评论瞬间炸锅 - Doubao’s pivot to monetisation sparked an immediate uproar. [1]
8. 烧钱 shāo qián
to burn money, spend huge amounts of money
这本身就是一场极致的“烧钱”游戏 - At the end of the day, it’s just a game of who has the most cash to burn. [1]
9. 试水 shì shuǐ
to test the waters
豆包开始试水收费 - Doubao has started testing paid services. [1]
10. 抢客 qiǎng kè
to compete aggressively for customers
阿里旗下的千问甚至祭出“请喝奶茶”、发补贴等手段疯狂抢客 - Alibaba’s Qwen even used tactics like “free milk tea” to aggressively acquire users. [1]
Three-character phrases
11. 价值战 jià zhí zhàn
competition based on value, value-driven competition
或许标志着国内大模型行业正从“价格战”悄然转向“价值战” - This may signal that China’s AI industry is quietly shifting from a “price war” to a “value war”. [1]
Related:
产品力 chǎn pǐn lì – product strength, product competitiveness
印钞机 yìn chāo jī – money-printing machine, cash cow
