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Google AI Studio / Gemini API vs Baidu ERNIE API

Compare Google AI Studio / Gemini API and Baidu ERNIE API on pricing, free tier, open source, API, self-host, verdict and momentum.

Both are models-api tools. Google AI Studio / Gemini API is freemium (free tier (text models); paid from $0.75/1M input (Gemini 3.7 Flash promo till 2027-01)) with an API, a free tier; Baidu ERNIE API is paid (ERNIE 5.1 ≤32k ~$0.56/$2.54 per 1M, 32k-128k ~$0.85/$3.10; ERNIE 4.5 Turbo 32K/128K ~$0.11/$0.45; ERNIE X1.1 ~$0.14/$0.56; prices in CNY, USD approximate) with an API and a free tier. The catalog stamp is ship for Google AI Studio / Gemini API and situational for Baidu ERNIE API, last verified 2026-09-01 and 2026-08-24 respectively.

Auto-paired from catalog data — the verdicts are hand-set, the pairing is algorithmic.

Google AI Studio / Gemini API

ship

Gemini API with a real free tier — huge context, multimodal, generous limits.

Baidu ERNIE API

situational

Enterprise AI platform with ERNIE LLMs, image models, and OpenAI-compatible v2 API.

fieldGoogle AI Studio / Gemini APIBaidu ERNIE API
pricingfreemium · free tier (text models); paid from $0.75/1M input (Gemini 3.7 Flash promo till 2027-01)paid · ERNIE 5.1 ≤32k ~$0.56/$2.54 per 1M, 32k-128k ~$0.85/$3.10; ERNIE 4.5 Turbo 32K/128K ~$0.11/$0.45; ERNIE X1.1 ~$0.14/$0.56; prices in CNY, USD approximate
free tieryesyes
open sourcenono
apiyesyes
self-hostnono
verdictshipsituational
momentumBlueshift — gaining momentumblueshiftSteady momentumsteady
last verified2026-09-012026-08-24
key limitationFree-tier prompts may be used for training — read the terms.Best access path is mainland-China Baidu Cloud; international onboarding is harder.

The call

Pick Google AI Studio / Gemini API — we ship it; Baidu ERNIE API is situational for us.

Pick Baidu ERNIE API for chinese-market applications needing ERNIE models.

Google AI Studio / Gemini API sources

  1. 1ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing

Baidu ERNIE API sources

  1. 1cloud.baidu.com/product-s/qianfan_home
  2. 2github.com/PaddlePaddle/ERNIE
  3. 3ernie.baidu.com/blog/posts/ernie4.5/
  4. 4cloud.baidu.com/doc/qianfan/s/wmh4sv6ya
  5. 5intl.cloud.baidu.com/en/doc/qianfan/s/Jm8r1826a-intl-en

Open live compare →Google AI Studio / Gemini API pageBaidu ERNIE API pageGoogle AI Studio / Gemini API.jsonBaidu ERNIE API.json