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Baidu ERNIEvsScaleway

Baidu ERNIE vs Scaleway: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence

Full comparison of Baidu ERNIE and Scaleway — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.

Baidu ERNIE

ERNIE 5 — Baidu's frontier Chinese-English bilingual LLM API

Baidu ERNIE is the LLM API from Baidu, China's largest search company. The ERNIE 5 series includes ERNIE-5.1 (balanced) and ERNIE-5.0 (frontier), both optimised for Chinese-English bilingual tasks, knowledge retrieval, and enterprise applications. Pricing is in USD via the international API.

Chinese NLPBilingual applicationsKnowledge retrievalEnterprise chat
Proprietary models

Scaleway

B300-SXM GPU instances — French sovereign cloud, Generative APIs with 1M free tokens

Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with the strongest EU data sovereignty credentials. The Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), and Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90). All new customers get 1M free tokens. GPU instances include B300-SXM, H100, L40S, and L4.

European complianceFrench data sovereigntyGDPROpen-sourceGPU computeDedicated inference
Open-weight hostHosts open weights

Key metric comparison

Baidu ERNIE
Scaleway
Cheapest input ($/1M)

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Cheapest output ($/1M)

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Peak throughput

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Best latency (TTFT)

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Intelligence score

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Context window

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Live token pricing

Strengths and weaknesses

Baidu ERNIE

Strong Chinese-English bilingual performance — best-in-class for Chinese language tasks
Deep integration with Baidu Search knowledge graph
ERNIE-5.1 at $0.56/$2.53 per 1M tokens is competitive for a frontier-tier bilingual model
Enterprise-grade reliability backed by Baidu's infrastructure
Primarily optimised for Chinese — English performance trails frontier Western models
Limited ecosystem outside China; fewer third-party integrations
Documentation and support primarily in Chinese

Scaleway

1M free tokens for all new customers — best free tier in Europe
B300-SXM GPU instances — latest NVIDIA Blackwell hardware in Europe
Live model catalog: GLM-5.2, Mistral Medium 3.5, Qwen3.8-27B, DeepSeek V4 Flash, gpt-oss-120B
French cloud — strongest EU data sovereignty credentials
Serverless and dedicated deployment options
Low latency (<200ms TTFT) for European end-users
Smaller model catalog than US-based inference providers
Lower throughput than speed-optimised providers
Less developer tooling than OpenAI or Anthropic

Key differentiators

Baidu ERNIE

ERNIE 5 is the leading Chinese-English bilingual LLM API, backed by Baidu's search knowledge graph — the go-to choice for applications targeting Chinese-language users.

Scaleway

The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — French company, French data centres, 1M free tokens for new customers, B300-SXM GPU instances, and <200ms TTFT for European users.

Frequently asked questions

Baidu ERNIE FAQs

What is ERNIE?

ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration) is Baidu's LLM series. ERNIE 5 is the current generation, with ERNIE-5.1 (balanced) and ERNIE-5.0 (frontier) available via the Wenxin Qianfan API.

How much does the ERNIE API cost?

ERNIE-5.1 is $0.56/$2.53 per 1M input/output tokens. ERNIE-5.0 is $1.40/$5.60 per 1M tokens. See the Baidu Cloud pricing page for current rates.

Is ERNIE good for English tasks?

ERNIE 5 handles English competently but is primarily optimised for Chinese. For English-only workloads, frontier Western models typically outperform ERNIE. For Chinese or bilingual Chinese-English tasks, ERNIE is among the strongest options available.

Scaleway FAQs

What models does Scaleway Generative APIs offer?

Scaleway's Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90), and more. All prices per 1M tokens.

Does Scaleway offer free tokens?

Yes. Every new Scaleway customer gets 1,000,000 free tokens to use across any Generative APIs model. Billing starts from the 1,000,001st token.

What GPU hardware does Scaleway offer in 2026?

Scaleway offers B300-SXM GPU instances (latest NVIDIA Blackwell), H100 SXM and PCIe, L40S, and L4 GPU instances. B300-SXM is one of the first Blackwell deployments available in Europe.

Provider resources

Baidu ERNIE

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Scaleway

Provider page
Website
PricingDocs

Baidu ERNIE — ERNIE 5 — Baidu's frontier Chinese-English bilingual LLM API

Baidu ERNIE is the LLM API from Baidu, China's largest search company. The ERNIE 5 series includes ERNIE-5.1 (balanced) and ERNIE-5.0 (frontier), both optimised for Chinese-English bilingual tasks, knowledge retrieval, and enterprise applications. Pricing is in USD via the international API.

ERNIE 5 is the leading Chinese-English bilingual LLM API, backed by Baidu's search knowledge graph — the go-to choice for applications targeting Chinese-language users.

Scaleway — B300-SXM GPU instances — French sovereign cloud, Generative APIs with 1M free tokens

Scaleway is a French cloud provider offering GPU compute and LLM inference with the strongest EU data sovereignty credentials. The Generative APIs catalog includes GLM-5.2 (€1.80/€5.50), Mistral Medium 3.5 (€1.50/€7.50), Qwen3.8-27B (€0.60/€3.30), DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (€0.40/€0.80), gpt-oss-120B (€0.15/€0.60), and Llama 3.3 70B (€0.90/€0.90). All new customers get 1M free tokens. GPU instances include B300-SXM, H100, L40S, and L4.

The strongest European data sovereignty credentials — French company, French data centres, 1M free tokens for new customers, B300-SXM GPU instances, and <200ms TTFT for European users.

Key strengths compared

Baidu ERNIE

  • Strong Chinese-English bilingual performance — best-in-class for Chinese language tasks
  • Deep integration with Baidu Search knowledge graph
  • ERNIE-5.1 at $0.56/$2.53 per 1M tokens is competitive for a frontier-tier bilingual model
  • Primarily optimised for Chinese — English performance trails frontier Western models
  • Limited ecosystem outside China; fewer third-party integrations

Scaleway

  • 1M free tokens for all new customers — best free tier in Europe
  • B300-SXM GPU instances — latest NVIDIA Blackwell hardware in Europe
  • Live model catalog: GLM-5.2, Mistral Medium 3.5, Qwen3.8-27B, DeepSeek V4 Flash, gpt-oss-120B
  • Smaller model catalog than US-based inference providers
  • Lower throughput than speed-optimised providers

Key weaknesses compared

Baidu ERNIE

  • Primarily optimised for Chinese — English performance trails frontier Western models
  • Limited ecosystem outside China; fewer third-party integrations
  • Documentation and support primarily in Chinese

Scaleway

  • Smaller model catalog than US-based inference providers
  • Lower throughput than speed-optimised providers
  • Less developer tooling than OpenAI or Anthropic

Provider category context

Baidu ERNIE is a frontier lab, founded in 2000. Scaleway is a cloud, founded in 1999. The category difference means these providers serve partially overlapping use cases — compare the model lists and pricing tables above to find the best fit for your specific workload.

How to choose between them

Choose Baidu ERNIE if you need Chinese NLP. Choose Scaleway if you need 1m free tokens for all new customers — best free tier in europe. For high-volume production workloads, run a cost comparison using the token pricing table above with your actual prompt/completion token ratio — the cheapest provider depends heavily on your input-to-output token ratio.