3 Open-Source AI Apps to Replace Your ChatGPT Subscription

The AI landscape is rapidly evolving, with open-source alternatives gaining significant traction alongside established tech giants like OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. This article explores three prominent open-source AI models: DeepSeek, Alibaba Qwen, and Baidu Ernie, highlighting their capabilities, accessibility, and potential to challenge proprietary AI solutions.

The Rise of Open-Source AI

The AI race is no longer solely dominated by large corporations. Companies like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Baidu are demonstrating that powerful AI functions can be developed and executed at a fraction of the cost of their proprietary counterparts. These companies are also focusing on building business partnerships and offering their AI products as free or low-cost, open-source models, contrasting with the trend of larger companies restricting advanced features behind paywalls.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek, a Chinese AI startup, has garnered international attention for its AI models that rival the quality of industry leaders like OpenAI. Founded in April 2023 as an offshoot of High-Flyer, DeepSeek has rapidly developed several AI models, including DeepSeek-LLM, DeepSeek-Math, DeepSeek V2, and the recently announced DeepSeek V3. Its reasoning models, DeepSeek-R1 and DeepSeek-R1-Zero, released in January 2025, have drawn comparisons to OpenAI's GPT-4 and o1 models, impacting stock prices and prompting competitors to re-evaluate their strategies.

DeepSeek's models are released under the MIT License, often referred to as "open weight," and are available on GitHub for developers. The AI tool functions as a chatbot and is accessible via web and mobile applications (iOS and Android). DeepSeek has secured partnerships with major companies like Lenovo, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu.

Key Features of DeepSeek:

Open Weight Models: Available under the MIT License.
Accessibility: Accessible via web and mobile apps.
Partnerships: Collaborations with major tech companies.
Performance: Comparable to leading proprietary models.

Alibaba Qwen

Alibaba's Qwen, also known as Tongyi Qianwen, is a family of large language models that ranks among the top 10 open-source models globally. Launched as a beta in April 2023, Qwen quickly gained popularity, with Alibaba releasing subsequent models as open source. Notable models include Qwen 2, Qwen-VL2, Qwen-vl-max, Qwen-Audio, and Qwen2-Math. The Qwen 2.5 series, including Qwen 2.5-Max and Qwen2.5-VL, announced in early 2025, are positioned as more powerful than competitors like OpenAI's GPT-4o and Meta's Llama-3.1-405B.

The original Qwen model was based on Meta's Llama LLM, adapted for Alibaba's processes. Later models are released under the Apache 2.0 License and are available on GitHub and Huggingface. Qwen operates as a chatbot accessible through web and mobile platforms, and its open-source code has facilitated the development of over 90,000 independent models.

Key Features of Alibaba Qwen:

Open Source: Released under Apache 2.0 License.
Extensive Model Family: Includes various specialized models (language, vision, audio).
Community Development: Over 90,000 models built on its code.
Performance: Competitive with leading AI models.

Baidu Ernie Bot

Baidu's Ernie Bot, an acronym for Enhanced Representation through Knowledge Integration, is another significant player in the open-source AI space. Baidu has been developing its ERNIE model since 2019, releasing Ernie 3.0 LLM in March 2023, followed by Ernie 3.5 and Ernie 4.0. While Ernie 4.0 is reserved for subscription services, Ernie 3.5 powers the brand's free chatbot.

Although not currently open source, Baidu plans to make its models more publicly accessible in response to market competition and decreasing production costs. The recent Ernie 4.5 LLM and Ernie X1 reasoning model have been compared to OpenAI's GPT-4.5 and DeepSeek R1, respectively. Baidu aims to make its models open source by June 30, 2025, and its chatbot is already free for all users. A future model, Ernie 5, is expected in the latter half of 2025, also planned to be open source and free.

Ernie functions as a chatbot available via web and mobile applications and has been integrated into the international version of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series.

Key Features of Baidu Ernie Bot:

Developing Open Source: Planned release by June 30, 2025.
Free Access: Chatbot is currently free for all users.
Integration: Used in Samsung Galaxy S24 series.
Performance: Competes with advanced AI models.

Conclusion

The emergence of powerful and accessible open-source AI models from companies like DeepSeek, Alibaba, and Baidu signifies a major shift in the AI industry. These alternatives offer cost-effective solutions and foster innovation through open collaboration, providing compelling options for users and developers seeking to move beyond proprietary AI platforms.