In recent days, several domestic and international large model companies have announced the free availability of their services, drawing widespread attention from the industry.

On Feb. 13, Baidu announced that its ERNIE Bot service will be completely free starting from April 1 at midnight. All users on PC and app platforms will be able to experience the latest model, which includes features such as long document processing, enhanced professional retrieval, advanced AI drawing, and multilingual conversation. On the same day, OpenAI also announced that the free version of ChatGPT will allow unlimited conversations using GPT-5 under standard settings. Additionally, Google recently announced that its latest AI model suite is now officially open for all users.

Strengthening User Loyalty and Intensifying Industry Restructuring

Gong Zheng, an engineer at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, noted that the rise of open-source models like DeepSeek, with their flexible and low-threshold characteristics, is reshaping the industry ecosystem and forcing leading players to break away from closed models. When open-source models can achieve 80% to 90% of the functionality of commercial models at only 10% of the cost, the moat of closed-source systems collapses, making free access a strategic choice for enhancing user loyalty.

The maturity of technology and the pressure from the open-source ecosystem have prompted large model companies to enter the free market. While free AI models might seem like "losing money to gain popularity," there are larger commercial considerations behind this move. According to Gong, the technological advantages of leading companies pave the way for free services. Whether it's DeepSeek, Baidu, Alibaba, or OpenAI, when technology leaders can provide higher-performance services at lower costs, "free" becomes a powerful tool for consolidating market position. Furthermore, this trend will intensify industry restructuring. If small and medium-sized companies cannot bear the long-term costs of free services, they may be forced to exit the market, while leading enterprises can optimize their models through accumulated user data, creating a cycle of "technology upgrade - user growth - cost reduction." In this model, resources will further concentrate on companies with advantages in computing power, data, and funding.

Gong also pointed out that free basic services will serve as traffic entry points, achieving a business closed loop through technology outputs and enterprise-level solutions as value-added services. The essence of this competition is the battle for the establishment of next-generation human-computer interaction standards.

Potential Emergence of New Charging Models for Compliance Value-Added Services

The introduction of free models has ushered the AI industry into a new development phase. With continuous technological advancements and cost reductions, how will the commercial operating models for large AI models evolve in the future? Experts told reporters that free services will attract more users and developers, promoting the popularization and application of AI technology. On the other hand, this will also trigger a new competitive landscape, prompting other companies to follow suit or explore new business models.

Bai Runxuan, an analyst at COVID CONSULTING (CCID) AI and Big Data Research Center, believes that offering basic functions for free is an inevitable trend, but enterprise-level demands will still incur charges based on needs. As countries strengthen AI regulation, such as the EU's AI Act and requirements for data traceability and security audits, companies will face higher implicit costs. This may also lead to the emergence of new charging models, such as compliance value-added services.

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