Chinese AI price war deepens as ByteDance, Tencent slash costs

A price war in China's AI sector is intensifying as major tech firms slash model costs amid narrowing capability gaps. ByteDance launched Seedance 2.0 Mini at half the price of its standard version, following rebates on its Coze platform. Tencent cut prices on its TokenHub platform by nearly 70% for the Hy-MT2-Pro model. MiniMax AI halved prices for its new M3 series, while Alibaba offered 50% off Qwen3.7-Max during the 618 sales event. Analysts at Bank of America Securities noted the landscape is 'vibrant and intensely competitive' with limited gaps between incumbents. Xiaomi had earlier made its MiMo V2.5 model 99% cheaper in late May, triggering follow-on cuts by other labs including DeepSeek. The reductions are welcomed by users like an office worker surnamed Li from Guangzhou.