In July 2025, Baidu said that 64% of its mobile search result pages already contained AI-generated content (Baidu, reported by 36Kr). By March 2026, the Baidu App had 655 million monthly active users (Baidu Q1 2026 results). Put those two numbers together and the conclusion is hard to avoid: for hundreds of millions of people in China, the first thing they read about your brand is written by an AI.
Western AI visibility tools mostly ignore this market. Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity are not available to most users in mainland China, so tracking them tells you nothing about how Chinese buyers see you. Starting today, LLM Pulse closes that gap with Baidu AI tracking.
Table of Contents
What is Baidu AI?
“Baidu AI” is the label we use in LLM Pulse for the AI-generated answer experience in Baidu Search. Baidu itself simply calls the consumer product Baidu Search. It sits at the top of the results page and answers the query directly, increasingly in place of traditional link-based results.
It is powered by ERNIE, Baidu’s model family. ERNIE 5.0, released in January 2026, is a natively multimodal model with 2.4 trillion parameters (KrASIA, 2026), and ERNIE 5.1 ranked fourth globally on the LMArena search leaderboard after its May 2026 launch, first among Chinese models (Baidu Q1 2026 results).
Baidu also offers ERNIE as a separate conversational assistant, which Baidu says passed 200 million monthly active users in January 2026 (South China Morning Post). LLM Pulse’s Baidu AI tracking focuses on the search experience, because that is where purchase research in China still starts for most categories.
Why Baidu AI matters for your brand
It is the gatekeeper for China. If you sell to Chinese consumers, travellers, students or business buyers, Baidu’s AI answer frames your brand before any click happens.
It relies on a different web. Baidu’s answers draw on the Chinese-language web and Baidu’s own properties. Your English site, your Western press coverage and your Reddit threads carry little weight. What matters is what exists about you in Chinese, which is why the source analysis we describe in how to track AI sources becomes even more important here.
It shapes outbound demand too. Chinese travellers researching hotels in Barcelona, students comparing European universities or buyers evaluating a German machine manufacturer all start on Baidu. You do not need an office in Shanghai for Baidu AI to matter to your revenue.
What Baidu AI tracking adds to LLM Pulse
| What you get | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| AI answer visibility | How often Baidu’s AI-generated answers mention, describe or compare your brand across your tracked queries |
| Query coverage | Which queries bring your brand into the answer and which topics still leave you out |
| Brand positioning | The attributes, comparisons and context Baidu uses when describing you and your alternatives |
| Share of voice | How your presence compares with Chinese and international competitors on the same queries |
| Sentiment | The tone of every mention, with the answer context behind it |
| Trends and Models Comparison | How Baidu AI evolves over time and how it differs from DeepSeek, Qwen or Western models for equivalent prompts |
For a primer on these metrics, see our guide to GEO metrics. If reputation is your main concern in China, our piece on AI brand reputation explains how to monitor and correct how AI describes you.
How it works
1. Activate the add-on. Open Plans & Billing, select Baidu AI, choose weekly or daily tracking and confirm the price for your plan.
2. Add Chinese queries. Create prompts in Simplified Chinese, set China as the market and add the local and global competitors you want to benchmark. Prompt Research helps you find the questions that matter.
3. Automated monitoring. LLM Pulse runs your queries in Baidu Search on your tracking schedule and captures the AI-generated answers.
4. Prioritize next steps. Review mentions, positioning, sentiment and query coverage, then decide where to act: Chinese-language content, local PR, marketplace presence or partner content.
What this means in practice
International brands see the gap between intention and reality. Many global brands assume their positioning travels. Baidu AI data often shows a different story: outdated product names, local competitors framed as the default and attributes nobody in the marketing team would choose.
Tourism, education and luxury get a new KPI. For sectors that depend on Chinese demand abroad, Baidu AI visibility is a leading indicator. You can track it by city, category and competitor.
One dashboard for East and West. Baidu AI sits next to ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews in the same project. Add Naver AI Briefing for Korea and you cover the three largest search ecosystems in Asia with one methodology.
“A customer in hospitality asked us a simple question: “What does China read about us before booking?” We did not have an answer. Building Baidu AI tracking was our way of making sure the next customer who asks gets one in minutes.
Every AI model you can track with LLM Pulse
Baidu AI joins a lineup of 18 AI models and AI search experiences, tracked in every country and language, with the same prompts and metrics across all of them.
| Model or experience | Availability | Best for understanding |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Included in every plan | The largest consumer AI assistant and its web search answers |
| Perplexity | Included in every plan | Citation-heavy research answers |
| Google Gemini | Included in every plan | Google’s assistant across Android and Workspace |
| Google AI Mode | Included in every plan | Google’s conversational search mode |
| Google AI Overviews | Included in every plan | AI summaries on top of Google results |
| Claude | Self-serve add-on | Developers, B2B and enterprise research |
| Microsoft Copilot | Self-serve add-on | Windows, Edge and Microsoft 365 users |
| Grok | Self-serve add-on | xAI’s assistant inside X |
| DeepSeek | Self-serve add-on | Open-weight model popular in Asia and with developers |
| Meta AI / Muse | Self-serve add-on | Meta AI across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Messenger |
| Naver AI Briefing | Self-serve add-on | AI answers in South Korea’s leading search engine |
| Baidu AI | Self-serve add-on | AI-generated answers in Baidu Search, China |
| Qwen | Talk to sales | Alibaba’s model family |
| MiniMax | Talk to sales | Chinese AI assistant ecosystem |
| Mistral | Talk to sales | Europe’s leading AI lab and Le Chat |
| Alexa for Shopping | Talk to sales | Amazon’s AI shopping recommendations |
| Walmart Sparky | Talk to sales | Walmart’s AI shopping assistant |
| Brave AI | Talk to sales | AI answers in Brave Search |
For China specifically, the strongest setup combines Baidu AI with DeepSeek, and Qwen or MiniMax through our team. Read our comparison of DeepSeek trackers to see how the pieces fit together.
Start tracking Baidu AI today
China’s search is already AI-first. The only question is whether you know what it says about you. Start your 14-day free trial, add Baidu AI from Plans & Billing, and get your first answers on the next run.
FAQ
What does “Baidu AI” mean in LLM Pulse?
It is our label for the AI-generated answer experience inside Baidu Search. Baidu’s own materials call the product Baidu Search, and ERNIE is Baidu’s separate conversational assistant. Our tracking captures the AI answers that appear when users search on Baidu.
Do I need a Chinese entity or a local team to use it?
No. You configure your queries, market and competitors in LLM Pulse and we run them for you. Baidu AI tracking is built precisely for teams without local staff who still need to know how they are perceived in China.
Should my prompts be in Chinese?
Yes, Simplified Chinese prompts give you the answers real users see. LLM Pulse supports every language at no extra cost, so you can keep English prompts for other models and compare the results side by side.
How is Baidu AI different from DeepSeek or Qwen tracking?
Baidu AI measures a search experience: the AI answer shown on a results page, grounded on the Chinese web. DeepSeek and Qwen are assistants and models that users talk to directly. Tracking both gives you the search and the chat side of Chinese AI discovery.
How much does Baidu AI tracking cost?
It starts at 8 € per month on Starter with weekly tracking and scales with your plan, because it covers every prompt your plan includes. Daily tracking is available on every tier.
How can I improve my visibility in Baidu AI?
Start with what exists about you in Chinese: an accurate Chinese-language website, consistent product names and presence on the platforms Baidu trusts. Then use LLM Pulse to find the queries where you are missing or misdescribed, fix the underlying content and measure the change week over week.
