Published on: March 17, 2025 / update from: March 17, 2025 - Author: Konrad Wolfenstein
Baidu attacks with its new AI models Ernie 4.5 and Ernie X1: Comparable to Deepseek, but at half price-Image: Xpert.Digital
Ernie 4.5 & x1: Baidus New AI models set new standards
Baidus new AI models Ernie 4.5 and X1: powerful at half price
On March 16, 2025, Baidu presented two new AI models that could mix up the hard-fought Chinese and global AI market. With the basic model Ernie 4.5 and the Ernie X1, which specializes in logical thinking, the Chinese technology giant is pursuing an aggressive price strategy with a high performance promise. Particularly noteworthy is the claim that Ernie X1 should offer the same performance as the successful Deepseek R1 at only half of the costs. In addition, Baidu plans to provide its models later this year as an open source solution, which could further heat the competition.
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The new generation of Ernie: technical properties and skills
Ernie 4.5: The multimodal flagship
According to Baidu, Ernie 4.5 is the company's first “native multimodale” language model and was specially developed to process and understand different data types such as text, images, audio and video. This ability for multimodal integration represents significant progress in AI development and opens up new applications.
The model is attributed to “excellent multimodal understanding of understanding” as well as improved language, generation, logic and memory functions. A special feature is the high “emotional quotient” (EQ), which is intended to empower memes and satirical content-an ability that has previously been attributed to Western AI models such as chatt.
According to Baidu, there are five technological innovations behind the impressive skills: “Flashmask” Dynamic Attention Masking for more efficient data processing, heterogeneous multimodal mixture-of experts for specialized processing of various content types, Spatiotemoral representation Compression Compression of Spatial and Temporary Information, Knowledge-Centric Training Data Construction and Self-Feedback Enhanced Post training.
Ernie X1: The specialized thinker
Ernie X1 is designed as a “profound thinking model with multimodal skills” and specializes in logical thinking. It is characterized by “stronger understanding, planning, reflection and evolutionary skills”. As the first “thought model” by Baidu, Ernie X1 supports a comprehensive range of tools that expand its functionality.
The technical foundations of Ernie X1 are based on several advanced technologies, including progressive Reinforcement Learning Method and end-to-end training Approach. The structured learning approach is intended to help the model improve incrementally and to continuously increase its performance.
In comparison with the competition: claim and reality
Ernie X1 vs. Deepseek R1
Baidu is offensive against Deepseek R1, one of the most successful Chinese AI models. According to Baidus, Ernie X1 offers “the same performance” as Deepseek R1, but in “half” the costs. This is a remarkable claim, since Deepseek R1 is known for its strength in complex tasks.
In the past, Deepseek R1 has achieved impressive results in various benchmarks and competes directly with Openais O1 models. In mathematics benchmarks like Aime 2024, Deepseek R1 reached 79.8%, just ahead of Openaai O1-1217 with 79.2%. On Math-500 it even achieved 97.3%, slightly via Openai O1-1217 with 96.4%. Deepseek R1 also shows strong services in programming tasks and general knowledge tests.
Whether Ernie X1 can actually keep up with these services cannot currently be verified independently. So far, Baidu has not published any benchmark results for his new thinking model.
Ernie 4.5 vs. GPT-4.5
At Ernie 4.5, Baidu continues and claims that the model exceeds GPT-4.5 and Deepseek V3 in several benchmarks. It should be ahead, especially in multimodal tasks and in logical thinking. Here, too, independent tests and comparisons are missing that could confirm these claims.
Aggressive price strategy: the cost advantage in detail
In view of the intensive competition in China, Baidu pursues an aggressive price strategy that is supposed to address both private users and companies.
Free use for private individuals
Both models are available free of charge. Access is via the official Ernie Bot, and even earlier than originally planned. This strategy aims to quickly expand the user base and to catch up with competitors such as Bytedance and Deepseek.
Unbeatable prices for corporate customers
For corporate customers, Baidu offers its models at extremely competitive prices:
- Ernie 4.5: $ 0.55 per million tokens for input, $ 2.20 for output
- Ernie X1: $ 0.28 per million tokens for input, $ 1.10 for output
For comparison: Deepseek R1 costs $ 0.55 for input and $ 2.19 for output per million tokens. Ernie X1 is actually about half as expensive as Deepseek R1, at least as far as the output costs are concerned.
The price difference for GPT-4.5 is even more dramatic, which according to reports 75 US dollars per million input tokens and $ 150 per million output tokens. Ernie 4.5 is only about 1% as expensive as GPT-4.5. This extreme price difference could be a significant competitive advantage if the promise of performance is observed.
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Open source strategy and availability
Earlier start and wide accessibility
Baidu made its new models available earlier than planned. Originally announced for April, you are already accessible via the Ernie Bot. For companies, Ernie 4.5 and X1 via APIS are available on Baidu Ai Clouds Maas platform Qianfan.
Open source plans for June 2025
In a strategic change of direction, Baidu plans to provide the Ernie-4.5 series as an open source solution from June 30, 2025. CEO Robin Li, who long campaigned for closed models, justifies this step by accelerating open source the spread of the technology. It is currently still unclear whether this also applies to the X1 series, but probably appears, since Deepseek R1 is also available as an open source model.
Baidus catch-up in the AI competition
Challenging market position
Baidu was the first Chinese technology company in March 2023 to launch a large voice model (LLM). Despite this early start, Baidu fell back to competitors such as Alibaba, bytedance and in particular the surprise success Deepseek.
The number of users speaks a clear language: Bytedances Chatbot Doubao, with 78.6 million, lists most of the monthly active users in China, followed by Deepseek with 33.7 million, while Baidus Ernie was significantly ago with 13 million.
Strategic importance and global effects
The market launch of the new models is part of a catch -up strategy. With the aggressive price strategy and the planned open source publications, Baidu could not only make up ground again in the Chinese market, but also increase the pressure on western AI laboratories.
The so-called “Deepseek moment”-the demonstration that a Chinese AI laboratory can perform with fewer means to perform similarly to western providers-has already caused unrest in the industry. This is shown by the latest letters from the AI Labore Anthropic and Openai to the US government, in which they are calling for a regulation of AI from China.
Potential and open questions
The new Baidu AI models could significantly change the dynamics in the global AI market, in particular through the combination of high performance, aggressive pricing and planned open source availability. However, it remains to be seen whether Ernie X1 can actually keep up with Deepseek R1 and even exceeds GPT-4.5 and must be confirmed by independent tests.
The announcement shows the increasing competition between Chinese and western AI providers and could lead to broader availability and falling prices for advanced AI technologies. At the same time, Baidus Open Source approach could change the global AI landscape sustainably and further increase the speed of innovation.
For users and companies, the new models potentially offer an inexpensive alternative to established offers, whereby the actual performance in practical use remains to be proven. The coming months will show whether Baidu with his new technology can actually build on Deepseek's success and regain lost market shares.
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