Baidu
Updated May 2026ERNIE
Baidu's search-native Chinese foundation model family
ERNIE is Baidu's long-running foundation model line, deeply tied to search, Chinese-language knowledge, Baidu Cloud, and China-market enterprise workflows. ERNIE 4.5 added a stronger multimodal base model, while ERNIE X1 pushed into reasoning. The family matters because it shows how national-language, search, cloud, and assistant ecosystems shape model design.
Variants
4
Best at
Chinese-language and China-market knowledge
Max context
128K
tokens
Pricing
ERNIE 4.5 Turbo
varies
per Baidu AI Cloud tokens
ERNIE open weights
$0
per self-hosted weights where available
Variants
Sort the table by context window or cost to find the right variant. Click any version below for a battle card with ranks, pricing notes, and official links.
| Modalities | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
ERNIE 4.5 Turbo ernie-4.5-turbo | 128K | varies / varies | 2025 | textvisionaudiovideo |
ERNIE X1 Turbo ernie-x1-turbo | 128K | varies / varies | 2025 | textvision |
ERNIE 4.5 Open ernie-4.5-open | 128K | varies / varies | 2025 | textvision |
ERNIE 4.0 Turbo ernie-4.0-turbo | 128K | varies / varies | 2024 | textvision |
Battle card
Context rank
#1
within ERNIE
Capability rank
#1
modalities + reasoning
Weights
Closed
API/app access
Best fights to pick
- Chinese-language chat
- multimodal search
- business assistants
- low-cost API apps
Rankings are Tendril directory ranks, computed from the model data shown here. Public benchmark leaderboards change often, so official docs and current benchmark pages should be checked before buying or deploying.
Learn
Lessons about this model
Structured lessons that cover ERNIE directly or put it in context alongside its rivals.
ERNIE: Family Map
ERNIE: Flagship Picker
ERNIE: Cost And Context
ERNIE: Reasoning Mode
ERNIE: Multimodal Workflows
ERNIE: Coding And Software Tasks
ERNIE: Agents And Tool Use
ERNIE: Local Or Private Deployment
ERNIE: Benchmarks And Reality Checks
ERNIE: Safety And Limits
ERNIE: Prompt Recipes
ERNIE: Industry Use Cases
ERNIE: Compare Against Rivals
ERNIE: Build A Mini Workflow
ERNIE: Capstone Selection Memo
Check yourself
Quizzes
Short, mixed-difficulty quiz sets on ERNIE and its model family.
ERNIE Model Family Quiz
5 questions
A short quiz on where ERNIE fits, which variants matter, and how to choose it responsibly.
Start quiz →Hands-on
Try these prompts
Ready-made prompts that show ERNIE at its best. Use them in your own AI workspace, then compare the output with what you learned in Tendril.
ERNIE same-task bakeoff
BuildersCompare ERNIE against a cheaper and stronger rival on one real task.
Use ERNIE for this task, then compare with one cheaper model and one stronger model: summarize a 10-page policy document into risks, decisions, owners, and open questions.
ERNIE failure-mode log
CreatorsTrack where ERNIE fails instead of only saving the best output.
Run this task three times. For every answer, mark failures as factual error, formatting error, weak reasoning, refusal, or missing citation.
Print & keep
Printable reference
One-page summaries and flowcharts — great for desks, classrooms, or study sessions.
Go deeper
Official resources
Straight from the lab — docs, API references, and the chat surfaces you can try today.
Strengths
- Chinese-language and China-market knowledge
- Baidu search and cloud integration
- low-cost hosted options
Limits
- less familiar outside China
- API and docs may require regional setup
- policy behavior may differ from Western labs