Ernie Bot vs Stele

A side-by-side look at pricing, capabilities, pros, cons, and our editorial scores.

	Ernie Bot Agents	Stele Agents
Tagline	Baidu's Mandarin-first ChatGPT rival, powered by the ERNIE model family	Shared project memory for AI coding agents across Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Copilot
Category	Agents	Agents
Pricing	Freemium· Free tier for Ernie 3.5 access; Ernie 4.0 and premium features require a paid subscription (approximately CNY 59.9/month for individual plans); enterprise API pricing via Baidu AI Cloud Qianfan platform is metered per 1K tokens.	Freemium· Free forever plan (unlimited public projects, 1 private project, monthly assistant allowance); paid tiers for additional private projects
Model	Baidu ERNIE 4.0 / ERNIE X1 / ERNIE Turbo (in-house)	—
Editorial score	8.7 / 10	—
Use cases	Mandarin content writing and marketing copyChinese-language document Q&A and summarisationBaidu-search-grounded research briefsCustom agents built on the Qianfan platformRetrieval-augmented chat over internal Chinese corporaCode generation and explanation in ChineseImage generation from Chinese promptsCustomer-service chatbots for mainland usersFine-tuning ERNIE models on domain data	shared memory across AI coding agentscross-tool project context handofftask queue for multi-agent workflowsagent onboarding from an existing codebasetracking failed refactor attemptscoordinating Claude Code and Cursor on one repoMCP-based agent memory backendarchitectural decision log for AI agents
Pros	Best-in-class Mandarin fluency and Chinese cultural/idiomatic understanding among major LLMs Deep integration with Baidu Search, Wenku, Netdisk and Maps for grounded Chinese-language answers Full agent/plugin platform (Qianfan) with function calling, RAG, and fine-tuning for enterprise developers Multiple model tiers (Ernie 4.0, X1 reasoning, Turbo) covering quality-vs-cost trade-offs Native image generation and document/PDF understanding built into the chat UI Compliant, in-country hosting that satisfies Chinese data-residency and regulatory requirements Very large free tier makes it accessible for individual and small-team experimentation	MCP-native, so it works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Copilot without per-tool adapters One-line CLI install with automatic onboarding from an existing repo Shared task queue prevents two agents from duplicating the same work Graph-based memory captures failed attempts, not just successful ones, so agents stop repeating dead ends Free tier is genuinely usable for solo developers (unlimited public projects, one private) Self-hosted SQLite edition on the roadmap for teams that need local data Export and deletion controls on private project graphs
Cons	Subject to Chinese government censorship; refuses politically sensitive topics and self-censors on sovereignty issues Web app and most documentation are Chinese-only, with a steep onboarding curve for non-Mandarin teams Requires a mainland Chinese phone number for sign-up, which blocks most international users English-language performance and reasoning lag Western frontier models (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini) Data submitted may be processed under PRC data laws, which is a non-starter for many Western enterprises Ecosystem lock-in to Baidu AI Cloud for serious production use	Currently hosted-only; the promised self-hosted build is not yet shipped Value depends on running multiple agents or switching tools often, less compelling for single-agent users Shared memory across agents can propagate a bad decision if not curated Early-stage product with limited public track record and small community Private project quota on the free tier is tight for anyone with several client repos
Website	yiyan.baidu.com	stele-ai.dev

Pick Ernie Bot if

✅ Best-in-class Mandarin fluency and Chinese cultural/idiomatic understanding among major LLMs
✅ Deep integration with Baidu Search, Wenku, Netdisk and Maps for grounded Chinese-language answers
✅ Full agent/plugin platform (Qianfan) with function calling, RAG, and fine-tuning for enterprise developers
✅ Multiple model tiers (Ernie 4.0, X1 reasoning, Turbo) covering quality-vs-cost trade-offs

Pick Stele if

✅ MCP-native, so it works with Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and Copilot without per-tool adapters
✅ One-line CLI install with automatic onboarding from an existing repo
✅ Shared task queue prevents two agents from duplicating the same work
✅ Graph-based memory captures failed attempts, not just successful ones, so agents stop repeating dead ends

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