DeepSeek is the best Chinese AI app for most people outside China; Doubao is the biggest inside China. If you want the best chinese ai app to actually use in English, today, for free, start with DeepSeek. If you want to know which app hundreds of millions of people in China open every month, that's Doubao.
📺 Watch: FREE DeepSeek Harness App is INSANE!
🔥 Get the Agent OS as a free bonus: AI Profit Boardroom members get the full Agent OS zip, prompt libraries, daily tutorials and weekly live coaching calls. → Get inside
That's the short answer. Below you'll get the full ranked list, what each app is good at, the user numbers where a reliable source exists, a quick word on privacy, and how I use these Chinese models inside AI agents rather than just chatting with them.
Quick note before we start: I run AI agents every day and teach thousands of people how to do the same inside the AI Profit Boardroom. Most of the Chinese models on this list are ones I've plugged into my own agent setup, so this isn't a list built from press releases.
The best Chinese AI app at a glance
Here's the full ranking. User numbers are monthly active users (MAU) from QuestMobile's first-half 2026 report, or a June 2026 top-10 list citing QuestMobile. Where no reliable single number exists, I've left it blank rather than guess.
| # | App | Company | Best for | Monthly users (QuestMobile) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | Free reasoning in English, open models, agents | About 130 million |
| 2 | Kimi | Moonshot AI | Long documents and agentic work | Varies by source |
| 3 | Qwen (Qianwen) | Alibaba | Open-weight models | About 167 million |
| 4 | Doubao | ByteDance | Chinese-speaking everyday users | About 382 million |
| 5 | GLM / Z.ai | Zhipu | Running inside agents like Hermes | Not quoted |
| 6 | MiniMax | MiniMax | Local models and Hailuo video | Not quoted |
| 7 | Tencent Yuanbao | Tencent | Tencent ecosystem users | About 49.8 million |
| 8 | ERNIE (Wenxiaoyan) | Baidu | Baidu ecosystem users | About 42 million |
| 9 | Kling | Kuaishou | AI video generation | Not quoted |
Notice the ranking isn't the same as the user count. Doubao has the most users by a mile, but it sits at number four because this list is about what works best for you, and most people reading this don't speak Chinese.
1. DeepSeek
DeepSeek is the best Chinese AI app for most people outside China. It's a free chat app from the company of the same name, it handles English well, and its reasoning is strong enough that technical users have made it a daily tool.
The bigger reason it's number one: DeepSeek releases open-weight models. DeepSeek V4 is the current one. That means you aren't locked into the app. You can run the model through other tools, plug it into agents, or pick a provider you trust.
DeepSeek also ships DeepSeek Harness, its open-source agent harness, with an official v0.2 desktop app. I tested it and the free desktop app genuinely impressed me. If you want my full walkthrough, read the DeepSeek Harness desktop app guide.
Worth knowing: QuestMobile puts DeepSeek at about 130 million monthly users, down about 20% year on year. So it's not growing like it was at launch, but it's still one of the biggest AI apps in the world.
Best for: anyone outside China who wants a free, capable assistant, plus builders who want open models for agents.
2. Kimi
Kimi is Moonshot AI's assistant, and it's the one I'd pick for long documents and agent-style work. It's known for handling very long context, so you can drop in big files and ask questions across all of them.
The current model is Kimi K3. Moonshot has leaned hard into agentic work, where the model doesn't just answer but plans and carries out multi-step tasks. If that interests you, my breakdown of Kimi agent swarms shows how it handles running several agents at once.
User numbers for Kimi vary a lot depending on who's counting, so I'm not going to quote one.
Best for: long reports, research packs, contracts and agent tasks that need a lot of context.
📺 Watch: Ling 3.0: New FREE Chinese AI!
3. Qwen
Qwen is Alibaba's AI family, and the Qwen app (Qianwen in China) has about 167 million monthly users according to QuestMobile. That makes it the second-biggest AI app in China.
For people outside China, though, the real story is the models. Qwen models are open-weight and very widely used by developers. I've covered Qwen 3.8 on my channel. If you want an open model you can download, run yourself and build on, Qwen is one of the first places to look.
Best for: developers and builders who want open models, and anyone already in the Alibaba ecosystem.
4. Doubao
Doubao is ByteDance's AI app and the biggest AI app in China, at about 382 million monthly active users in mid-2026 per QuestMobile. That's more than double the next app on the list.
So why is it fourth? Because it's built mostly for the Chinese-language market. If you don't speak Chinese, it's harder to get the most out of it. If you do, or you're researching what the Chinese mass market actually uses, Doubao is the one to study.
Best for: Chinese speakers and anyone researching the most popular AI app in China.
5. GLM / Z.ai
GLM is Zhipu's model family, available through Z.ai. I've run GLM models inside Hermes, including GLM 5.2 and 5.3, and they hold up well on real agent tasks.
Most people don't think of GLM as an app they chat with every day. Its strength is as the brain behind an agent. That's exactly the kind of thing I measure with Goldie Bench, my benchmark that tests models on real agent work instead of trivia questions.
Best for: powering agents like Hermes with a capable Chinese model.
📺 Watch: These NEW Chinese AI Models are INSANE!
6. MiniMax
MiniMax makes both language models and Hailuo, its AI video tool. I run MiniMax M3 locally through Ollama, which means it works on my own machine without sending prompts to a cloud chat app.
That local option is a big deal for privacy, which we'll get to in a minute. If you want a Chinese model without using a Chinese app, running MiniMax locally is one clean way to do it.
Best for: local model users and people who want AI video through Hailuo.
7. Tencent Yuanbao
Yuanbao is Tencent's AI assistant, with about 49.8 million monthly users per a June 2026 top-10 list citing QuestMobile. It makes the most sense for people already living inside Tencent's ecosystem in China.
Best for: Tencent users in China.
8. ERNIE
ERNIE is Baidu's AI, and its consumer app is called Wenxiaoyan. It has about 42 million monthly users according to the same June 2026 list. Like Yuanbao, it's mainly a fit for people already using Baidu's products.
Best for: Baidu ecosystem users in China.
9. Kling
Kling is Kuaishou's AI video generation tool. It's not a chat assistant at all, which is why it's last on a list of AI apps people mostly use for text. But if you want AI video, Kling belongs on your shortlist next to Hailuo.
Best for: creators making AI video.
Are Chinese AI apps safe to use?
Here's my honest caution. These are Chinese companies. Don't put private data, client data or anything you aren't comfortable sharing through them.
That doesn't mean you can't use them. It means you should be deliberate about what goes in. Use the chat apps for general questions, learning, brainstorming and public information. Keep sensitive business data out.
The good news is that several of these companies release open-weight models. DeepSeek, Qwen and others can be run locally or through providers you choose. When the model runs on your own machine, like I do with MiniMax M3 through Ollama, your prompts don't go to the app at all. That's the cleanest way to get the benefit of these models without the data question.
If you're not sure what's safe for your business, grab a free AI strategy session and we'll talk through it.
Using Chinese models inside AI agents
Here's where most people miss the real value. Chatting with DeepSeek or Kimi in an app is fine. Plugging those same models into an AI agent that actually does work for you is a different level.
An agent like Hermes can use different models as its brain. I've run GLM, MiniMax and DeepSeek models inside Hermes. You get cheap or free, capable models doing real tasks: research, writing, file work, multi-step jobs. My guide to running Hermes with DeepSeek walks through that setup.
DeepSeek Harness is the other route. It's DeepSeek's own open-source agent harness, so you get an agent built around DeepSeek models out of the box, with a desktop app on top.
The old way is opening five different chat apps and copy-pasting between them. The new way is one agent system that picks the right model for each job. That's what my Agent OS does. It ties together the model, memory, skills, tools and a dashboard, with Hermes running inside it. You can read how it fits together in the Agent OS guide.
Agent OS is only available inside the AI Profit Boardroom ($69/mo), where you get the zip, setup training, 4 live coaching calls a week and daily Q&A. You don't hand-edit config files. You paste a prompt and ask your AI agent to set it up.
FAQ
What is the best Chinese AI app?
DeepSeek is the best Chinese AI app for most people outside China. It's free, works well in English, has strong reasoning and releases open models you can use in agents. Inside China, Doubao is the biggest.
What is the most popular AI app in China?
Doubao, from ByteDance. QuestMobile puts it at about 382 million monthly active users in mid-2026, well ahead of Qwen at about 167 million and DeepSeek at about 130 million.
Are Chinese AI apps safe?
Use them with care. They're run by Chinese companies, so don't put private or client data through them that you aren't comfortable sharing. For sensitive work, run open-weight models like DeepSeek, Qwen or MiniMax locally instead of using the apps.
Which Chinese AI is best for long documents?
Kimi from Moonshot AI. It's known for long context, so you can load big files and ask questions across them, and it's strong at agent-style work too.
Want help picking the right models and putting them to work in your business? Book a free AI strategy session and we'll map it out together.
