The best Chinese AI app in 2026 is Qwen Chat from Alibaba, because it pairs the strongest Chinese model I've benchmarked with a free web app that works in English.
DeepSeek takes second place for being free, fast and famous, and Kimi from Moonshot AI takes third for long documents, slides and agent work.
That is the answer, and the full scored ranking of all 10 apps is right below.
I'm ranking these on one thing most lists skip, which is real test data.
I've run the models behind these apps through the same one-shot build tasks on GoldieBench, and I've wired most of them into my own AI agents.
So every score you see here is either a real benchmark number or my own clearly labelled verdict score.
Top 3 Picks At A Glance
- 🥇 Qwen Chat (Alibaba) is the best Chinese AI app overall, because it is free, it works in English and it runs the top-scoring Chinese model family on my bench.
- 🥈 DeepSeek (DeepSeek) is the best free everyday chat app, with a huge context window and a very cheap API behind it.
- 🥉 Kimi (Moonshot AI) is the best Chinese AI app for long documents, slides, deep research and agent tasks.
How I Ranked These Chinese AI Apps
I scored every app out of 10 on four things that actually matter when you pick a daily tool.
The first is model quality, which I judged from real GoldieBench scores wherever the model behind the app has been benched.
The second is access outside China, because an app you can't sign up for in English is no use to most of my readers.
The third is price, including whether there's a genuinely useful free tier.
The fourth is privacy and trust, which covers where your data goes and how much the company tells you.
These four verdict scores are my own judgement, and they are not GoldieBench scores.
The GoldieBench numbers are separate, and I quote them exactly as they appear on the live leaderboard on 9 October 2026.
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The 10 Best Chinese AI Apps, Ranked
1. Qwen Chat (Alibaba) — Verdict 8.8/10
Qwen Chat is Alibaba's AI assistant, and you can use it free on the web at chat.qwen.ai.
It runs Alibaba's Qwen models, and Qwen 3.8 is the strongest fully tested Chinese model on GoldieBench at 8.10.
I wired Qwen 3.8 Max into my own Agent OS as one profile, and it built 47 games and simulations on the bench.
Alibaba also opened an English international edition of QwenWork, its workplace agent, in public beta on 26 August 2026, according to several tech news reports.
Best for: Everyday chat, coding help and anyone who wants the strongest Chinese model in a free app.
Price: It's free to use on the web, and many Qwen models have open weights.
2. DeepSeek (DeepSeek) — Verdict 8.2/10
DeepSeek is the app that made the world pay attention to Chinese AI, and it is still free to use on the web and on phones.
DeepSeek released V4.1-Flash on 10 September 2026 with open weights under the MIT licence, native image understanding and a context window of around one million tokens.
It also said it would route every V4-Pro request to V4.1-Flash from 14 September until a V4.1-Pro arrives.
I've used DeepSeek inside my agents for months, and its biggest strength is how cheap it is to run at scale.
The reason it isn't first is that the current V4.1 models aren't scored on GoldieBench yet, and its privacy policy says your data is stored on servers in China.
Best for: Free everyday chat, reasoning and cheap API use for builders.
Price: The app is free, and V4.1-Flash is listed at $0.15 per million input tokens on OpenRouter.
3. Kimi (Moonshot AI) — Verdict 8.1/10
Kimi is Moonshot AI's assistant, and its website now runs the Kimi K3 model.
The Kimi web app has Slides, Deep Research, Docs, Scheduled tasks and Plugins, so it does a lot more than chat.
Kimi K3 scores 7.89 on GoldieBench across all 50 tasks, and I wired it into my Agent OS on launch day.
Best for: Long documents, research reports, slide decks and agent-style tasks.
Price: There's a free tier plus paid memberships, and the K3 API is $3 per million input tokens.
4. Z.ai Chat (Zhipu) — Verdict 7.8/10
Z.ai is the international home of Zhipu's GLM models, and its free web chat at chat.z.ai currently says it is powered by GLM-5.3-Flash.
GLM-5.2 scores 7.77 on GoldieBench, and the GLM-5 series ships with open weights under the MIT licence.
In China, the same company runs the Zhipu Qingyan app at chatglm.cn.
Best for: Free chat and coding with a model you can also self-host.
Price: The web chat is free, and Z.ai sells a flat coding plan for heavier use.
5. MiniMax Agent and Hailuo AI (MiniMax) — Verdict 7.6/10
MiniMax runs two apps worth knowing, which are MiniMax Agent at agent.minimax.io and the Hailuo AI video app.
Hailuo now runs MiniMax H3, the video model I tested that turns one line of text into a 2K clip with sound already inside it.
My whole H3 test day, seven clips plus a finished avatar video, cost me a few dollars.
The MiniMax M3 language model scores 7.97 on GoldieBench.
Best for: AI video, creative work and general agent tasks.
Price: Hailuo uses credits with paid plans, and the M3 API is $0.30 per million input tokens.
6. LongCat Chat (Meituan) — Verdict 7.4/10
LongCat is the AI app from Meituan, the Chinese delivery giant, and you can use it free at longcat.chat.
LongCat-2.0 is an open 1.6-trillion-parameter model, and I gave it four one-shot 3D game prompts that it built into four playable worlds.
It averages 8.12 on GoldieBench, but that's only four tasks, so the board marks it as provisional.
Best for: Builders who want to try a strong open model for free.
Price: The web chat is free, and the weights are open.
7. Xiaomi MiMo Studio (Xiaomi) — Verdict 7.0/10
MiMo Studio is Xiaomi's web app for its MiMo models, and MiMo-V2.6 Pro and Flash are both open-weight.
MiMo-V2.6 Pro scores 6.35 on GoldieBench across 50 tasks, so it's behind the leaders on builds.
Where it shines is price, because Pro costs $0.435 per million input tokens and Flash is cheaper still.
Best for: Cheap agent work and people who want to try Xiaomi's models.
Price: Pro is $0.435 per million input tokens through the API.
8. Tencent Yuanbao (Tencent) — Verdict 6.6/10
Yuanbao is Tencent's AI assistant, and its big advantage is that it sits inside the WeChat world.
It runs Tencent's Hunyuan models alongside DeepSeek, and Tencent's open Hy3 coder scores 6.76 on GoldieBench across seven tasks.
It's built mainly for Chinese-speaking users, so it ranks lower for anyone outside China.
Best for: People who already live inside WeChat.
Price: It's free to use in China, and Hy3 is $0.14 per million input tokens through the API.
9. Doubao and Dola (ByteDance) — Verdict 6.2/10
Doubao is ByteDance's assistant, and third-party trackers rank it as the most-used AI app in China.
Outside China, ByteDance runs a separate app called Dola, which was previously called Cici.
Reports say Dola is not available in some markets, including the United States, and that it does not run on the same models as Doubao.
I haven't benched ByteDance's models, so I can't give you a GoldieBench number for this one.
Best for: Chinese-speaking users who want a polished, all-round assistant.
Price: It's free to use.
10. Baidu Wenxin Assistant (Baidu) — Verdict 5.8/10
Baidu's assistant runs the ERNIE models, and Baidu released ERNIE 5.1 in May 2026.
I covered ERNIE 5.1 on my channel because it's free to try, but the consumer app is built for Chinese users.
ERNIE isn't on GoldieBench yet, so this ranking is based on access and my own testing rather than bench data.
Best for: Chinese-language search and research.
Price: It's free to try.
🔥 Want my exact setup for running these Chinese models inside AI agents? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom, I show you how I plug Qwen, Kimi, GLM and DeepSeek into my Agent OS, step by step. You also get four coaching calls a week with 3,400+ members. → Get access here
The Best Chinese AI Apps Compared At A Glance
| Rank | App | Maker | Works in English outside China? | Free tier? | Model behind it | GoldieBench score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen Chat | Alibaba | Yes | Yes | Qwen 3.8 | 8.10 | 8.8 |
| 2 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | Yes | Yes | V4.1-Flash | Not scored yet | 8.2 |
| 3 | Kimi | Moonshot AI | Yes | Yes | Kimi K3 | 7.89 | 8.1 |
| 4 | Z.ai Chat | Zhipu | Yes | Yes | GLM-5.3-Flash (GLM-5.2 benched) | 7.77 | 7.8 |
| 5 | MiniMax Agent and Hailuo | MiniMax | Yes | Credits | MiniMax M3 and H3 | 7.97 | 7.6 |
| 6 | LongCat | Meituan | Yes | Yes | LongCat-2.0 | 8.12 (4 tasks) | 7.4 |
| 7 | MiMo Studio | Xiaomi | Yes | API pricing | MiMo-V2.6 Pro | 6.35 | 7.0 |
| 8 | Yuanbao | Tencent | Mainly Chinese | Yes | Hunyuan and DeepSeek | 6.76 (Hy3, 7 tasks) | 6.6 |
| 9 | Doubao and Dola | ByteDance | Dola only, region-limited | Yes | Not benched | Not on the board | 6.2 |
| 10 | Wenxin Assistant | Baidu | Mainly Chinese | Yes | ERNIE 5.1 | Not on the board | 5.8 |
The GoldieBench column is the live average for the model behind each app, and the verdict column is my overall score as an app.
Why Qwen Chat Wins The Best Chinese AI App Verdict
Qwen wins because it's the only app that scores near the top on every one of my four criteria.
Its model quality is the highest of any fully tested Chinese model on the bench.
It's free on the web, and the whole interface works in English.
Alibaba also releases open weights for many Qwen models, which gives you a private fallback if you ever need one.
DeepSeek came very close, and if it had a scored V4.1 model on the board it might have taken the top spot.
But a ranking has to be built on what's measured today, not on what might be true later.
Feature-By-Feature Verdict On The Top Five
| Feature | Qwen Chat | DeepSeek | Kimi | Z.ai | MiniMax |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Everyday chat | It's excellent and fast. | It's excellent and very popular. | It's excellent and thorough. | It's very good and free. | It's good through MiniMax Agent. |
| Coding help | It's the strongest on my bench. | It's strong and cheap at scale. | It's strong, with K3 at 7.89. | It's strong, with GLM-5.2 at 7.77. | It's strong, with M3 at 7.97. |
| Long documents | It handles big inputs well. | It has around a million tokens of context. | This is where it shines most. | It has a long context on GLM-5.2. | It's fine for normal documents. |
| Slides and research | It's capable. | It's basic. | It has built-in Slides and Deep Research. | It has an agent mode. | It's handled by the agent. |
| Video | It's not the focus. | It's not offered. | It's not the focus. | It's not the focus. | Hailuo H3 is the best here. |
| Open weights | Yes, for many models. | Yes, under MIT. | Yes, for some models. | Yes, under MIT. | Yes, for some models. |
What I Learned Testing The Models Behind These Apps
I've been testing Chinese models on camera for a long time, and the gap to the American labs is now small.
Qwen 3.8 at 8.10 sits within touching distance of Claude Opus 5 at 8.27, which is the top single model on GoldieBench.
LongCat built all four of its game prompts into playable worlds on the first try.
Hy3 crawled from broken builds to an 8.2 DOOM build once I fixed my prompt, which taught me that cheap models need better instructions.
MiMo-V2.6 Pro built me a neon snake game from one sentence in 8 minutes and 28 seconds, but it also produced a weak build on another task.
The lesson is that the app matters less than the model, and the model matters less than how you use it.
If you want the full model-only ranking, my list of the best AI models for coding puts the Chinese models next to Claude, GPT and Gemini on the same 50 tasks.
Privacy: The Honest Downside Of Chinese AI Apps
I'm not going to pretend privacy doesn't matter here, because it does.
DeepSeek's own privacy policy says user data is stored on servers in China, where local law can require companies to share data with the authorities.
Italy's data protection authority limited DeepSeek's processing of Italian users' data in January 2025.
Australia banned DeepSeek from government devices in February 2025, and Germany asked Apple and Google to remove the app from their stores.
That doesn't mean you can't use these apps.
It means you should treat them like any free consumer app and keep sensitive data out of them.
My rule is simple, which is that I never paste client data, passwords or private files into any consumer chat app, wherever it's from.
If you need a Chinese model for sensitive work, the better route is the open weights, which you can run on your own machine or through a host you trust.
💡 Want to run these models privately on your own machine? The AI Profit Boardroom has the local model setups I use, so your data never leaves your computer. Join 3,400+ members and four weekly coaching calls. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom
How To Choose The Right Chinese AI App For You
Pick Qwen Chat if you want one free app that does almost everything well.
Pick DeepSeek if you want the cheapest possible API for building your own tools.
Pick Kimi if your work is long reports, research and slide decks.
Pick Z.ai if you want a free chat today and a model you can self-host tomorrow.
Pick MiniMax if video is the job.
Pick Yuanbao, Doubao or Baidu's assistant only if you read Chinese and live in that ecosystem.
Related Reading
- The best AI models for coding ranks every model on 50 real builds, including Qwen, Kimi, GLM and MiniMax.
- My DeepSeek Harness review shows what DeepSeek's own agent harness can actually do.
- Claude Opus 5 vs GPT-5.6 explains the American models these Chinese apps are chasing.
Also On Our Network
- 🌐 How to set up and use the top three Chinese AI apps step by step
- 🌐 Which Chinese AI app is best for real business work
- 🌐 The Chinese AI apps and models that plug into an Agent OS
- 🌐 Every Chinese model behind these apps, scored on GoldieBench
FAQ: Best Chinese AI App
What is the best Chinese AI app?
Qwen Chat from Alibaba is the best Chinese AI app for most people in 2026.
It's free on the web, it works in English, and the Qwen 3.8 model family behind it scores 8.10 on GoldieBench.
Is DeepSeek still the best Chinese AI app?
DeepSeek is still the most famous Chinese AI app, and it's free, but I rank it second.
Its current V4.1 models aren't scored on GoldieBench yet, and its privacy policy says your data is stored in China.
Are Chinese AI apps safe to use?
They're fine for general questions, but you shouldn't paste client data, passwords or confidential files into any consumer chat app.
The safer route for sensitive work is running the open-weight models yourself.
Can I use Doubao outside China?
Doubao is built for China.
ByteDance's overseas assistant is a separate app called Dola, which was previously called Cici, and reports say it isn't available in some markets, including the United States.
Which Chinese AI app is best for coding?
Qwen and Kimi are the strongest for coding in my tests.
Qwen 3.8 scores 8.10 and Kimi K3 scores 7.89, with MiniMax M3 at 7.97 and GLM-5.2 at 7.77.
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About Julian
I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.
I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.
- I've built Goldie Agency into a seven-figure SEO and link building agency.
- I've grown my YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
- I run GoldieBench, where I score AI models on real one-shot builds.
- I wrote "Link Building Mastery", which is available on Amazon.
→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom
My final verdict is that Qwen Chat is the best Chinese AI app in 2026, with DeepSeek and Kimi close behind.
