How to compare Chinese LLM API pricing
As of 2026-11-04.
Never mix CNY domestic list prices with USD international quotes. Prefer the console matching your billing entity.
Official pricing entry points
| Family | Official pricing URL | Currency note |
|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek | https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing | USD |
| Qwen | https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/model-pricing | USD (international Model Studio) |
| GLM (Zhipu / Z.AI) | https://docs.z.ai/guides/overview/pricing | USD |
| Kimi (Moonshot) | https://platform.moonshot.cn/docs/pricing | CNY or USD depending on account region |
| MiniMax | https://www.minimax.io/pricing | USD |
| Doubao / Seed (ByteDance) | https://www.byteplus.com/en/pricing?product=ModelArk | USD (BytePlus) |
| ERNIE (Baidu) | https://intl.cloud.baidu.com | Depends on region (CNY domestic / intl cloud billing) |
| Hunyuan (Tencent) | https://www.tencentcloud.com/document/product | Depends on Tencent Cloud region |
| StepFun (Step) | https://platform.stepfun.ai/docs/en/guides/pricing/details | USD |
Verified example: DeepSeek (transcribed)
From DeepSeek Models & Pricing as of 2026-11-04: deepseek-flash and deepseek-v4-pro bill per 1M tokens with cache hit/miss and peak/off-peak multipliers. Off-peak is half of peak. Peak windows: 01:00–04:00 and 06:00–10:00 UTC, Monday–Friday, excluding Chinese public holidays.
Verified example: StepFun (transcribed)
From StepFun pricing details: e.g. step-3.5-flash $0.10 / $0.02 / $0.30 (miss/hit/output per 1M); step-5-preview $1.00 / $0.10 / $2.70.
FAQ
Why does this page not list one unified price table?
Vendors use different units (cache hit/miss, peak/off-peak, per-minute audio, per-request search). A fake unified table would invent numbers. We link each official table and only transcribe figures we verified.