DOUBAO, the flagship artificial intelligence app developed by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, is currently testing a tiered subscription model that would charge users up to 500 yuan (US$73) per month. Industry experts say the move marks a clear pivot for Chinese AI large model developers — from aggressively expanding user volume to generating sustainable revenue.

A recent service notice on Doubao’s app store page outlined three monthly pricing tiers: a standard plan for 68 yuan, an advanced plan for 200 yuan, and a professional plan for 500 yuan. ByteDance stated that these plans are still under testing, with full details to be released later, and that some free services will remain available.

Wang Peng, a researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, noted that Doubao’s pricing experiment reflects a shift in China’s AI industry. “After an initial phase of spending money to increase their size, developers are now under pressure to build sustainable revenue streams, shifting their focus from accumulating traffic to extracting value,” he said.

The push to charge users is also driven by surging computing costs due to explosive demand. According to ByteDance’s cloud platform, Volcano Engine, as of March, Doubao’s underlying large model processed more than 120 trillion tokens per day—doubling in just three months and expanding roughly a thousandfold since its launch in May 2024. The platform also noted that the number of enterprise clients exceeding 1 trillion cumulative token usage currently stands at 140, up from 100 at the end of last year.

Subscription models for AI services are already well established globally. Leading models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini typically charge between US$8 and US$20 per month for entry-level plans, with premium tiers priced at US$200 to US$250.

“The shift to paid models signals a new competitive logic — not who can attract the largest number of users, but who can translate AI capability into measurable economic returns,” said researcher Wang Peng.

China’s demand for AI data is growing rapidly and beginning to reshape the economy. According to the latest figures from the National Data Administration, daily token usage soared from just over 1 trillion at the start of 2025 to 100 trillion by the end of the year.(SD-Agencies)