Baidu ERNIE vs SeaLink: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Baidu ERNIE and SeaLink — 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.
SeaLink
Embeddings API gateway (Singapore) — Gemini Embedding models, USD pricing, no chat completions
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. Pricing is in USD per 1M input tokens with no output charge. SeaLink does not offer chat completions — it is an embeddings-only service. Billing is in USD.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Baidu ERNIE
SeaLink
Key differentiators
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.
Embeddings-only API gateway in Singapore — Gemini Embedding 001 ($0.135/1M) and Gemini Embedding 2 ($0.18/1M) with USD billing and no output charge.
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.
SeaLink FAQs
What is SeaLink?
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. It does not offer chat completions. See sealink.io/pricing for current rates.
Does SeaLink offer chat completions?
No. SeaLink is an embeddings-only service. It provides Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2 for vector generation workloads such as semantic search and RAG pipelines. It does not offer chat, reasoning, or other completion modalities.
How much does SeaLink cost?
As of October 2026: Gemini Embedding 001 is USD 0.135 per 1M input tokens; Gemini Embedding 2 is USD 0.18 per 1M input tokens. There is no output charge for embeddings. See sealink.io/pricing for current rates.
Provider resources
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.
SeaLink — Embeddings API gateway (Singapore) — Gemini Embedding models, USD pricing, no chat completions
SeaLink is a Singapore-based embeddings API gateway providing access to Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2. Pricing is in USD per 1M input tokens with no output charge. SeaLink does not offer chat completions — it is an embeddings-only service. Billing is in USD.
Embeddings-only API gateway in Singapore — Gemini Embedding 001 ($0.135/1M) and Gemini Embedding 2 ($0.18/1M) with USD billing and no output charge.
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
SeaLink
- Gemini Embedding 001 and Gemini Embedding 2 at competitive USD rates
- Singapore-based — low latency for Southeast Asia workloads
- Simple USD billing with no output charge for embeddings
- Embeddings only — no chat completions or other modalities
- Small catalog limited to Gemini Embedding models
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
SeaLink
- Embeddings only — no chat completions or other modalities
- Small catalog limited to Gemini Embedding models
- Newer provider with limited public track record
Provider category context
Baidu ERNIE is a frontier lab, founded in 2000. SeaLink is a inference api, founded in 2024. Baidu ERNIE as a frontier lab trains and serves its own proprietary models. SeaLink as an inference API provider hosts open-weight models — typically offering lower prices for equivalent capability tiers but without access to proprietary frontier models.
How to choose between them
Choose Baidu ERNIE if you need Chinese NLP. Choose SeaLink if you need gemini embedding 001 and gemini embedding 2 at competitive usd rates. 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.