ERNIE 5.1
Input price$0.59
Output price$2.65
BaiduText
ERNIE X1
ERNIE X1 is Baidu's model at $0.28 input and $1.10 output per million tokens, with a 128K context window. On a typical 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to roughly $0.49 per million tokens, placing it in the budget band of the 68 models tracked here — cheaper than 70% of them.
Context window128K
Input price$0.28 / 1M
Output price$1.1 / 1M
Output speed45 tok/s
Quality score86
Data updatedUpdated Aug 2026
Price verified2026-08-06 · Official
By price, ERNIE X1 ranks 21st cheapest of 68 on input and 23rd on output. Its quality score of 86 ranks 35th of 68, and on value (quality score ÷ output price) it ranks 23rd of 68. Its blended rate sits 82% below the catalog average.
In real billing terms: a support chatbot handling 50,000 turns a month (2,000 input / 500 output tokens each) costs about $56 per month on ERNIE X1, while a RAG workload of 20,000 queries (8,000 input / 800 output tokens each) runs about $62. Because output is priced 3.9× input here, long-generation tasks scale cost fastest — cap output length before you optimise anything else.
A 128K context window holds roughly 171 pages of A4 text (at ~750 tokens per page), ranking 52nd of 68 here. That covers typical RAG and multi-turn chat, though book-length inputs still need retrieval and chunking. Output runs at about 45 tok/s (62nd fastest of 68), which is better suited to asynchronous or background jobs.
We track 3 Baidu models, and ERNIE X1's blended rate sits 43% below that provider's average. If your task tolerates a little less headroom, Hunyuan HY3 (Tencent) blends about 79% cheaper at a quality score of 87, and is worth benchmarking first. Nothing in the catalog scores higher on quality, so this is the ceiling.
The closest model in Baidu's line-up is ERNIE 4.5 ($0.55 input / $2.20 output, quality 84). Against it, ERNIE X1 scores 2 points higher on quality, runs 45 tok/s slower (about 50%), costs 98% less blended. When two models sit this close on price, the deciding factor is usually the quality ceiling — run both against your real prompts before picking.
Estimated monthly cost
Monthly API spend across four common workloads, next to the cheapest model we track.
| Workload | Usage assumption | This model | Cheapest model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support chatbot | 2,000 input / 500 output tokens per turn, 50,000 turns per month | $56 | $3.00 |
| RAG document Q&A | 8,000 input / 800 output tokens per query, 20,000 queries per month | $62 | $3.84 |
| Coding assistant | 12,000 input / 2,000 output tokens per request, 10,000 requests per month | $56 | $3.20 |
| Batch summarization | 4,000 input / 400 output tokens per item, 200,000 items per month | $312 | $19 |
Derived directly from the rates on this page. Excludes prompt caching, batch discounts and free tiers.
How it compares
The alternatives worth benchmarking alongside it, from the same dataset.
| Model | Provider | Blended /1M | Quality | Price delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERNIE X1 | Baidu | $0.49 | 86 | — |
| Hunyuan HY3Cheaper option | Tencent | $0.10 | 87 | -79% |
| ERNIE 4.5Same provider | Baidu | $0.96 | 84 | +98% |
| qwen3.5-flashBest value overall | Alibaba | $0.055 | 82 | -89% |
Best for
ReasoningAffordable
Modalities
Text
Where it fits — and where it doesn't
Good fit
- Reasoning: multi-step decomposition, planning and tasks that need rigorous inference.
- High-volume, cost-sensitive batch work: low rates suit classification, tagging and summarization at scale.
Poor fit
- Latency-critical interactive use: 45 tok/s makes long responses feel sluggish.
- Image understanding: this model is text-only, so vision tasks need a multimodal alternative.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the ERNIE X1 API cost?
ERNIE X1 costs $0.28 per million input tokens and $1.10 per million output tokens. On a 3:1 input-to-output mix that blends to about $0.49 per million tokens.
What does ERNIE X1 cost per month?
It depends on volume. Using the four worked scenarios on this page: a support chatbot runs about $56/month, RAG document Q&A about $62/month, a coding assistant about $56/month, and batch summarization about $312/month. Plug your own token counts into the cost calculator for a tailored figure.
How large is the ERNIE X1 context window?
128K tokens — roughly 171 pages of A4 text at ~750 tokens per page, ranking 52nd of the 68 models tracked here.
ERNIE X1 or Hunyuan HY3 — which is better value?
Hunyuan HY3 blends to about $0.10 per million tokens versus $0.49 for ERNIE X1 — roughly 79% cheaper — at a quality score of 87 against 86. If that quality gap does not show up on your task, take the cheaper one; if it does, stay with ERNIE X1. Benchmark both on your own data before deciding.
What is ERNIE X1 best suited for?
Tagged use cases: reasoning, cheap. Reasoning: multi-step decomposition, planning and tasks that need rigorous inference. Less suitable: Latency-critical interactive use: 45 tok/s makes long responses feel sluggish.
How current is this ERNIE X1 pricing?
Pricing here was last verified on 2026-08-06 against official documentation. llmprice.app runs a daily collection job, but providers can change rates between runs — confirm against Baidu's official pricing page before you commit.
Estimate the real cost of this model
Bring tokens per request and monthly volume into the calculator to compare total model costs.
Related models
Continue by provider and use case.
View model
ERNIE 4.5
Input price$0.55
Output price$2.2
o4-mini
Input price$1.1
Output price$4.4
Pricing, speed and quality scores change over time. Confirm official documentation before production use.