Doubao, the "most aggressive in burning money," has started charging fees—the "first year of commercialization" for Chinese AI large models has arrived.

Doubao, the "most aggressive in burning money," has started charging fees—the "first year of commercialization" for Chinese AI large models has arrived.

Doubao, a ByteDance subsidiary, has launched a paid subscription test, marking the end of the years-long "free battle" of acquiring users through subsidies, and officially accelerating the commercialization of China’s AI large models.

According to Wind Chase Trading Desk and a Morgan Stanley research report, the Doubao App Store page now features a paid service agreement with three subscription options—Standard at 68 yuan/month (688 yuan/year), Enhanced at 200 yuan/month (2048 yuan/year), and Professional at 500 yuan/month (5088 yuan/year).

ByteDance stated that Doubao’s basic daily-use services will remain free, while value-added functions that consume more computing power, such as PPT creation, data analysis, and video production, are being explored and tested.

Morgan Stanley believes that as the most aggressive subsidizer in China’s consumer AI sector, Doubao’s move sends an important industry signal: The stage of cultivating Chinese consumers’ AI usage habits is essentially complete, and the industry is shifting from user subsidies to commercial sustainability. This transformation is crucial for the rationality of ByteDance's continued AI capital spending, and also serves as a reference for the industry’s long-term monetization path.

The end of the subsidy era; commercialization logic emerges

Doubao is the largest AI chat app in China by monthly active users, reaching 345 million as of March 2026, mainly through a free strategy and large-scale marketing investments.

However, as the user base expands, customer acquisition costs continue rising, and token consumption among existing users is growing rapidly—in March 2026, Doubao’s daily token consumption reportedly exceeded 120 trillion. Maintaining complete free usage for heavy scenarios is no longer economically feasible.

By charging for complex workloads and keeping basic conversations free in a tiered pricing structure, ByteDance is essentially making heavy users pay for their own computing consumption, taking the first step toward improving Doubao’s unit economic efficiency.

Pricing targets professional users, not the mass market

Looking at price levels, Doubao Standard is slightly higher than similar global products (about $8/month), higher than domestic competitor Kimi’s entry-level price of 49 yuan/month, while other apps like Tongyi, Yuanbao, and Wenxinyiyan are still free.

Doubao’s Standard pricing is about 30%-60% higher than domestic entry-level programming subscription plans, and basically matches ByteDance’s video generation app Dream.

Combined with value-added functions like PPT creation, data analysis, and video generation, Morgan Stanley believes Doubao’s paid plans are clearly aimed at creators and knowledge workers—not the broad mass user base of 300 million+ monthly active users. This pricing strategy establishes a "professional user" positioning rather than monetizing the mass market.

Subscription has considerable revenue potential, but remains at an early stage

A sensitivity calculation was made for Doubao’s subscription revenue. Referring to US AI chat apps, their paid conversion rate in 2025 was about 5% (50 million out of 1 billion monthly active users). Given that Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay for AI subscriptions has not been fully verified, it is assumed Doubao’s paid conversion rate is between 0.3% and 3.0%, with monthly active users at 345 million to 525 million, and annual average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) about $98.

Based on these calculations, Doubao’s annualized subscription revenue falls between $101 million and $1.5 billion. In a neutral scenario (paid conversion rate 1.0%-1.5%, about 435 million monthly active), revenue is estimated at $426 million to $684 million. This scale is still limited compared to ByteDance’s core advertising business; commercialization is still at an early stage.

It is notable that Doubao’s paid subscription exploration is not just a corporate business decision but also an industry indicator. Morgan Stanley identifies it as a key node in China’s AI industry moving from “user education” to the “commercialization stage.” If Doubao’s paid model is validated by the market, other still-free competitors—including Alibaba’s Tongyi and Tencent’s Yuanbao—will face a choice between following suit or continuing their free strategies, possibly reshaping the industry’s competitive landscape.

 

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