Baidu’s Ernie 4.5 Outperforms GPT 4.5 By A Mile

2025 marks a big moment for Chinese AI. First, Deepseek-R1, then Manus made headlines, and now Baidu has introduced two powerful AI models.

On March 16, 2025, Baidu launched ERNIE 4.5 and ERNIE X1, shaking up the global AI industry. These models don’t just compete with the USA's AI giants, they challenge them at a fraction of the cost.

Baidu is a Chinese multinational technology company, primarily known as the dominant search engine in China, similar to Google in the US, and also offers various other internet services and AI development.

The company surprised everyone by making its ERNIE Bot chatbot free for all users ahead of its planned April 1 release. This move gives millions of people access to advanced AI without any cost barriers.

These new AI models stand out for their powerful features and low prices. ERNIE 4.5 claims to match GPT-4.5’s performance while costing only 1% of OpenAI’s model.

ERNIE X1 offers reasoning skills similar to DeepSeek R1 but at half the price. Chinese AI is no longer catching up, it is leading the way in making advanced AI accessible to everyone(accessibility is still in question!).

ERNIE 4.5: GPT 4.5 alternative?

ERNIE 4.5 is a powerful AI model that can work with text, images, audio, and videos all at once. It performs many tasks smoothly and understands different types of content. Here’s how it helps:

1. Advanced Language Understanding – It talks and responds in a more natural way. It understands conversations better and gives more relevant answers.
2. Stronger Memory Retention – It remembers past interactions. If you talk to it multiple times, it can connect past conversations to give better responses.
3. Multimodal Processing – It can understand not just text but also images, audio, and videos. It even recognizes memes, jokes, and sarcasm, making it more useful in real-world conversations.

Benchmark Performance

Baidu claims ERNIE 4.5 outperforms GPT-4o in several key benchmarks, especially in multimodal capabilities. The chart below compares their performance across different tasks:

Multimodal Benchmark Scores

Where ERNIE 4.5 Excels

✅ Text Understanding & General Knowledge – ERNIE 4.5 scores 79.6, slightly outperforming GPT-4o (79.14) in overall text benchmarks.

✅ Chinese Language Processing – Performs strongly in C-Eval and CMMLU, indicating better Chinese text comprehension than GPT-4o.

✅ Reasoning & Complex Text Tasks – Shows higher accuracy in BBH and DROP, making it better at logical reasoning and text-based problem-solving.

✅ Mathematical Problem Solving – Competes closely with GPT-4.5 and DeepSeek V3-Chat, showing strong math-solving ability.

Where ERNIE 4.5 Needs Improvement

❌ Coding Tasks – Performs significantly worse than GPT-4.5 and DeepSeek in LiveCodeBench and HumanEval, indicating weaker coding and programming abilities.

❌ Multimodal Reasoning & Complex Math – Underperforms in CNMO2024 and Math-500, suggesting it needs better multimodal reasoning and advanced math skills.

❌ Commonsense & Open-Domain Question Answering – Scores lower in GPQA, meaning it struggles with open-ended knowledge-based queries.

ERNIE X1: Deepseek R1 alternative?

ERNIE X1 is Baidu’s first deep-thinking AI model, designed for tasks that require logical reasoning and problem-solving. Its capabilities include:

• Advanced Reasoning – Explains its thought process step-by-step, similar to DeepSeek R1.
• Mathematical and Logical Deduction – Handles complex calculations and structured reasoning.
• Contextual Conversation– Maintains a deep understanding of ongoing conversations.

Specialized Capabilities

ERNIE X1 is designed for:

• Q&A – Answers complex questions with strong domain knowledge.
• Literary and Manuscript Writing – Assists in drafting articles, scripts, and books.
• Multimodal Tool Integration – Works with image recognition, code interpretation, and document analysis.

Technical Approach

• Progressive Reinforcement Learning – Improves reasoning abilities over time.
• End-to-End Training – Ensures a structured approach to problem-solving.
• Chain of Thought (CoT) Reasoning – Makes decisions more transparent.

ERNIE 4.5 & X1 Performance Check

This section explores how ERNIE 4.5 and X1 perform in tasks like image reasoning, document analysis, audio processing, and creative image generation.

Since the models only support the Chinese language and require a Chinese national account for access, we will look at real-world examples shared online.

These examples show how users have tested the models and what results they received.

Here are some common use cases for ERNIE 4.5 & X1:

• Reasoning with Image Analysis
• Document Analysis and Summarization
• Audio Analysis
• Creativity and Image Generation

Task 1: Reasoning + Image Analysis

In this task, the model solved a math problem presented in an image.

• Model used: ERNIE 4.5
• Output:

ERNIE 4.5 analyzes the image quickly and solves the math problem step by step. It goes through all the questions in the image and then provides a final summary.

The model’s speed and accuracy make it useful for students, educators, researchers, and professionals who need fast and precise problem-solving.

Task 2: Document Analysis + Summarization

In this task, the model received a document and had to summarize a specific topic from it.

• Model used: ERNIE 4.5
• Output:

ERNIE 4.5 allows users to upload multiple file types, including DOCs, PDFs, PPTs, and Excel sheets.

Users can select one or more files, and the model quickly extracts relevant information and provides a concise summary.

This feature is valuable for research analysis, legal document reviews, financial data extraction, and corporate reporting.

Task 3: Audio Analysis

For this task, the model had to analyze an audio clip and identify its source.

• Model used: ERNIE 4.5
• Output:

ERNIE 4.5 is one of the first AI chatbots to include an audio analysis feature. It listens to the clip, identifies the source, and explains its significance. This feature is useful for real-time transcription, voice-based search, deepfake detection, and sentiment analysis in media, customer service, education, and law enforcement.

Task 4: Creativity + Image Generation

For this task, the model analyzed a room’s interior and suggested decor improvements. It then generated an updated image with the enhancements.

• Model used: ERNIE X1
• Output:

ERNIE X1 analyzes the room’s image, suggests possible improvements, and then generates an updated version of the room with better decor. This feature is useful for interior designers, home renovation planning, real estate staging, and virtual decor visualization.

Pricing and Accessibility

One of the biggest advantages of ERNIE 4.5 and X1 is their low cost compared to OpenAI and DeepSeek.

Availability

• ERNIE 4.5 is now available on Baidu's AI chatbot and cloud platform Qianfan.
• All users can access Baidu's AI services for free through the chatbot.
• Baidu released ERNIE 4.5 earlier than planned, making it available weeks ahead of schedule.

Market Context and Competition

Chinese AI Landscape

• Baidu was the first major Chinese tech company to launch a ChatGPT-like chatbot.
• ByteDance, Moonshot AI, and DeepSeek are emerging as strong competitors.
• Alibaba’s Qwen, an open-source AI model, is gaining recognition among developers worldwide.

Business Impact

• Baidu’s cloud revenue grew by 26% in the December quarter.
• More developers are using Baidu’s AI services for computing power.
• Weaker advertising sales remain a challenge due to China’s economic slowdown.

Future Implications

For the AI Industry

• AI pricing models may change globally as Baidu offers powerful AI at lower costs.
• Multimodal AI development could accelerate, improving how AI understands text, images, and audio.
• ERNIE 4.5’s open-source release may impact the open-source AI community.

For Users and Developers

• Lower prices make AI tools more accessible to businesses and individuals.
• Developers can create new AI-powered applications using ERNIE 4.5’s reasoning abilities.
• Users should consider model limitations before fully integrating them into critical tasks.

Conclusion

Baidu’s ERNIE 4.5 and X1 compete directly with Western AI models like GPT-4.5. These models offer strong multimodal and reasoning abilities at a much lower cost, making advanced AI more affordable and accessible.

By providing high performance at lower prices, Baidu is challenging Western AI leaders and pushing the industry toward cheaper and more scalable AI solutions. This could force competitors to lower prices, making AI available to more businesses and users.

With ERNIE 4.5 set to become open-source, Baidu will further boost AI development and accessibility worldwide. These models will likely change the global AI market, giving more people access to powerful AI tools.

FAQs

What is Baidu’s ERNIE 4.5?

ERNIE 4.5 is Baidu’s latest AI language model, boasting improved NLP capabilities, efficiency, and multimodal processing, designed to compete with global LLMs like GPT-4.

How does ERNIE 4.5 compare to previous versions?

ERNIE 4.5 improves on its predecessor with better contextual understanding, faster response times, and enhanced reasoning capabilities, making it a stronger AI model for real-world applications.

What is X1, and how does it relate to ERNIE 4.5?

X1 is Baidu’s latest AI-powered agent designed to integrate with ERNIE 4.5 for real-time task automation, enterprise AI solutions, and seamless digital interactions.

How does ERNIE 4.5 compare to OpenAI’s GPT-4?

ERNIE 4.5 competes with GPT-4 in NLP tasks, but its performance depends on factors like training data, fine-tuning, and use-case applications. Baidu claims it excels in efficiency and localization.

Why is China investing so much in AI models?

China aims to establish itself as a global AI leader, reducing reliance on Western technology by developing powerful domestic AI models like ERNIE 4.5, DeepSeek R1, and Manus AI.

References

1. NEW Chinese AI Ernie X1 & 4.5…Beats DeepSeek?
2. ERNIE 4.5 AI model by Baidu claims to match DeepSeek R1 at half the cost
3. Erine 4.5 Twitter Post