Doubao 豆包 (ByteDance) vs Zhipu Qingyan 智谱清言 (ChatGLM)

A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.

Doubao 豆包 (ByteDance) ByteDance's China-first AI assistant, free for daily use with paid pow... Visit Zhipu Qingyan 智谱清言 (ChatGLM) Zhipu's GLM-powered assistant, plus a GLM coding subscription Visit
RECATOOLS Score 6.4 / 10 7.7 / 10
Capability 7 8
Value for money 8 7
Ease of use 6 7
ASEAN readiness 4 6
API quality 6 8
Pricing Freemium Freemium
Free tier Free consumer app: chat, search, writing, image generation and voice and video calls; expert and Office Task modes carry smaller quotas than paid tiers Qingyan web/app chat is free with sign-in; memberships and points packs are optional. Z.ai API: GLM-4.7-Flash, GLM-4.5-Flash and GLM-4.6V-Flash are free
Paid from ¥68/month (专业版 Standard, or ¥688/year); API from $0.075 per M input tokens on BytePlus Coding Plan from $18/mo; Qingyan membership ¥79/mo (China App Store)
Has API ✓ ✓
Open source ✗ ✗
Free to use ✓ ✓
Users Surpassed 100 million daily active users by late 2025 —
Founded 2023 2019
Maker ByteDance Z.AI Co., Ltd. (北京智谱华章科技股份有限公司)
Verdict

Doubao is the default AI assistant for Chinese-language users: QuestMobile puts it far ahead of Qwen and DeepSeek, everyday features are free, and the June 2026 Professional tiers (¥68 to ¥500 a month) add an agent mode...

Qingyan is a capable, free Chinese AI assistant backed by Zhipu's strong GLM models, and the GLM Coding Plan offers an affordable alternative model for coding agents, with off-peak discounts in Singapore time. Prices hav...

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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.