Doubao vs DeepSeek vs Tongyi Qianwen actual test comparison, how to choose among three domestic free AI assistants in 2026

Doubao vs DeepSeek vs Tongyi Qianwen, a Hands-On Comparison: How to Choose Among China's Three Free AI Assistants in 2026

Entering 2026, China's large models have moved past the early catch-up phase into a competitive landscape in full bloom. If you are just looking for a free AI assistant usable day to day, with no interest in studying the underlying architecture and no plan to pay for a subscription, then the choices in front of an ordinary user are actually quite concentrated, basically just Doubao, DeepSeek, and Tongyi Qianwen. They are backed respectively by ByteDance, DeepSeek (the company), and Alibaba, with differing emphases in resources, ecosystem, and technical route.

Using the same batch of questions, I ran a full round across all three products, from Chinese conversation, writing, and coding to mathematical reasoning, trying to give a real experiential comparison that is not "marketing-pitch" in tone. The content below will not involve specific version numbers and benchmark scores, because models iterate too fast and the numbers go stale easily; the industry widely holds that actual usage experience is more worth referencing.

The Positioning Differences of the Three Products

Doubao is the AI assistant under ByteDance, and in product polish it clearly takes a mass-market route. The interface is friendly, the new-user onboarding is clear, it has both a mobile app and a web version, and it has some connection with the Douyin ecosystem, for example you can invoke some Doubao capabilities directly within Douyin. Its positioning is closer to an all-around assistant aimed at general consumers, with a very smooth Chinese experience.

DeepSeek comes from the DeepSeek team in Hangzhou and is considered a representative of the "technical school" within China's AI circle. Its reasoning models have a great reputation in the industry, and judging by actual experience, when doing complex logic problems and math problems it often gives a fairly solid thought process. Its API pricing also takes an affordable route, so many developers and heavy users hook DeepSeek into their own workflows.

Tongyi Qianwen is produced by Alibaba, and its biggest characteristic is having both open-source versions and closed-source services, which gives it greater flexibility in the developer ecosystem. At the everyday-use level, Tongyi Qianwen's web version has complete features, integrating Alibaba's own DingTalk and Quark products, and if you are already within Alibaba's tool chain, the barrier to use is very low.

Although all three are called "AI assistants," their underlying target users are actually somewhat different, which is the root of the experiential differences that follow.

Comparing the Chinese Conversation Experience

Chinese conversation is a dimension where domestic AIs most easily open up a gap, and also most easily level it out. All three are already quite mature on routine chat and Q&A, and you basically cannot tell who clearly wins. But the moment the topic gets a little special, the differences emerge.

Doubao's tone is most like an assistant that "understands the Chinese internet." It uses more conversational, down-to-earth expressions, suiting writing social-platform copy and Xiaohongshu-style product-recommendation content. Ask it a localized question like "what's worth buying on Double 11," and the granularity of its answer is clearly finer than the other two.

DeepSeek's answer style leans serious, with clear logical organization, but its conversational expression is a bit weaker. If you ask it a more academic or technical Chinese question, the answer it gives makes you feel "this guy is really thinking." But for writing the kind of Xiaohongshu copy that carries a bit of mood, it comes off slightly stiff.

Tongyi Qianwen sits in the middle, solid and unremarkable; it will not make a big mistake in any situation, but it also will not make your eyes light up. Its reserve of Chinese classical poetry and traditional-culture knowledge is decent, and on some obscure idioms and allusions it answers fairly reliably.

A Hands-On Test of Writing Ability

I used three test tasks to compare: one, writing a business thank-you email; two, writing a piece of Xiaohongshu product-recommendation copy; three, writing a paper abstract.

On the business email, Tongyi Qianwen and Doubao performed similarly, with appropriate tone and complete structure. DeepSeek occasionally wrote it too formally and needed some adjusting. All three could give usable drafts in a single generation, with little difference.

On Xiaohongshu copy, Doubao clearly had the edge. It seems very familiar with that Xiaohongshu language ecosystem of "let's go, sisters," "absolutely amazing," and "endless repurchase," and it used emoji naturally too. DeepSeek's output read more like "traditional marketing copy," with a turn-of-the-millennium ad flavor. Tongyi Qianwen was between the two: usable, but needing edits to be fully on point.

On the paper abstract, a more academic task, DeepSeek performed most reliably. It would proactively organize the logical chain of research background, method, and conclusion, with accurate terminology, approaching mainstream closed-source level. Doubao and Tongyi Qianwen could also write one, but occasionally were not specific enough on the method section.

Comparing Coding Ability

Coding is the hard metric developers most readily use to compare AI assistants. All three can write routine Python, JavaScript, and Java code, and handling LeetCode medium-difficulty problems is basically no problem.

DeepSeek's code model has a fairly good reputation in the industry, and judging by actual experience, the code it writes has fairly complete comments, and when facing complex logic it proactively gives multiple implementation ideas. If you hook it into an IDE for daily coding, DeepSeek is a fairly solid option.

Doubao's coding ability is enough for everyday use, handling simple scripts, scrapers, and data cleaning. But faced with a deeper algorithm problem or large-system design, its answers have a "breadth over depth" feel.

Tongyi Qianwen, backed by Alibaba's code accumulation, often gives more "industrial-style" code in Java and enterprise-development scenarios, conforming to common engineering conventions. If your work is backend services or microservices, Tongyi Qianwen's code will feel familiar to you.

Mathematical Reasoning and Logic Problems

I prepared three kinds of problems: one, high-school math derivative and probability problems; two, logic-reasoning problems (the classic "knights and knaves" type); three, somewhat more open-ended applied-math problems.

DeepSeek's advantage on this category of task is fairly obvious. Its reasoning model shows the complete thought process, and you can see how it breaks down the problem, verifies intermediate steps, and rules out wrong paths. Even if the final answer has a problem, the process has reference value.

Doubao's and Tongyi Qianwen's regular models have no issue with simple problems, but on problems needing multi-step reasoning, they occasionally skip steps or directly give an answer that looks right but is actually wrong. For this category of task, the industry widely holds that reasoning models are the more suitable choice.

If you are a middle-schooler, college student, or preparing for the postgraduate exam or various competitions, DeepSeek's experience on this track is more solid.

Online Search and Real-Time Information

All three now support online search, which has become standard. But the search quality differs.

Doubao's online-search integration is high; ask a real-time question like "today's Beijing weather" or "yesterday's news about a certain company," and the response is fast, the information sources are fairly rich, and it automatically lists the citation sources, looking quite proper.

Tongyi Qianwen's online search is also complete, and because it taps into Quark's search capability, it performs well on certain vertical information, such as academic material and e-commerce price comparison.

DeepSeek's online feature exists, but relatively speaking it is not its main focus. If your need is to follow daily news or check the latest policies, Doubao and Tongyi Qianwen are more convenient.

Mobile and PC Coverage

Doubao's mobile-app experience is the most complete of the three. It has full iOS and Android clients, with voice conversation, image recognition, and document upload all done smoothly, suiting asking questions on your phone during a commute.

Tongyi Qianwen also has a standalone app with a decent experience, and through DingTalk and Quark it can be accessed in another form, effectively covering multiple entry points.

DeepSeek's official mobile app came online a bit later, and the experience is still being polished. But its web version has complete features, and if you mainly use a PC, DeepSeek's web version is perfectly sufficient, plus its API-integration convenience is very developer-friendly.

How to Use Save AI to Archive All Three Conversations Uniformly

After using these three AIs for a while, you run into a very practical problem: good conversations are scattered across each platform, making search extremely inconvenient. My own solution is to use a Chrome extension called Save AI to export the conversations from Doubao, DeepSeek, and Tongyi Qianwen into PDF, Word, Markdown, or a long image, archiving them locally. It supports more than a dozen mainstream AI sites, and the data is processed local-first, not uploaded to the cloud, so users sensitive about privacy can use it with peace of mind.

The actual usage is simple: after chatting on the three web versions, click the extension icon and choose the format you want. The exported Markdown can go directly into Obsidian or your own note system, the PDF suits archiving for colleagues to consult, and the long image is well suited to sharing on social media. This way, three different products can be unified in archiving, making migration and retrospection much more convenient.

Which to Choose, Recommended by User Type

For ordinary daily users, Doubao is recommended first. It has the highest composite score on Chinese conversation, localized content, and app experience, with no barrier at all for beginners, and gives a presentable answer to whatever you ask.

For students and STEM-oriented heavy users, DeepSeek is the option more worth using long-term. Its reasoning ability is solid, suiting doing problems, writing papers, and data analysis. If you are a programmer, its API pricing is also worth the money.

For enterprise users and heavy users of the Alibaba ecosystem, Tongyi Qianwen will be the more convenient choice. Its integration with DingTalk and Quark is high, saving a lot of switching cost in enterprise-office scenarios. Its open-source version is also attractive to teams building their own AI applications.

If you do not mind the hassle, my actual suggestion is to register an account with all three and switch by scenario daily. All three are free to use (for the specific paid versions, see the official public page), so there is no need to pick just one. After archiving the conversations with Save AI, over long-term use you will also form your own preferences.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do all three require account registration?

Yes; Doubao, DeepSeek, and Tongyi Qianwen all require account registration to use the full features. The registration flow is simple, basically completable with a phone-number verification code. All three support third-party logins like WeChat and Alipay, so the barrier is low. After registering there is a free quota, and an ordinary user's daily usage basically will not hit the cap; if you are a heavy user, you can keep an eye on each one's membership or API plans, for which see the official public page.

Which understands local content like Chinese classical poetry best?

By actual experience, all three are already decent on Chinese classical poetry, idioms and allusions, and traditional culture. If you must rank them, Tongyi Qianwen and Doubao are slightly more stable in this area, while DeepSeek's answers lean more toward academic analysis. Ask an emotive question like "the mood of this poem," and Doubao's explanation is more vivid; ask a textual-research question like "where does this line originate and how is it used," and Tongyi Qianwen's answer is fairly solid. If you are a literature enthusiast, you can try the same question across all three and feel the difference yourself.

Which is more suitable for students?

Students' needs are usually writing assignments, looking up material, aiding concept understanding, and doing math problems. All things considered, DeepSeek has the edge on math and reasoning tasks, suiting STEM students; Doubao is more convenient on writing tasks, suiting humanities students and those needing to write reports; Tongyi Qianwen is strong all-around and very steady as a daily study assistant. If your budget is tight, all three are free, so you can register all of them and switch by the specific assignment type.

How big is the gap between domestic AI and ChatGPT?

The industry widely holds that in 2026, the leading domestic large models have already approached or even surpassed ChatGPT's experience in Chinese-language scenarios, while there is still a gap in English-language scenarios and some complex reasoning tasks, but the gap is much smaller than a year or two ago. The size of the gap depends on which category of task you use it for. For everyday conversation, writing, and organizing Chinese material, domestic AI is perfectly sufficient; for cutting-edge research, professional English paper writing, and ultra-long-context processing, closed-source international products still have some advantage in certain scenarios.

Will the three be affected by being banned abroad?

Doubao, DeepSeek, and Tongyi Qianwen are all operated by domestic vendors, with servers and compliance frameworks in China, so use by domestic users is stable, with no "suddenly unusable" situation. Their web versions all run very fast within China, with no extra tools needed. If you are overseas, some features may have access restrictions, but overall all three have higher usability within China than international products.