Our answer
Doubao 豆包
ByteDance’s assistant, far ahead of Qwen and DeepSeek
The short answer
Doubao (豆包), made by TikTok’s owner ByteDance, is China’s most popular AI app, with 382 million monthly users in June 2026. Alibaba’s Qwen (千问) is second with 167 million and DeepSeek third with 130 million. ChatGPT is not officially available in China, so Chinese apps dominate.
| Most popular | Doubao 豆包 (ByteDance) |
|---|---|
| Monthly users | 382 million (June 2026) |
| Fastest climber | Qwen 千问 (Alibaba) |
| Best known abroad | DeepSeek |
| All AI apps combined | 499 million monthly users (May 2026) |
How we know
4 signals · SourcedMonthly users
QuestMobile counted 382 million monthly users for Doubao in June 2026, about 2.3 times Qwen. [1]
STRONGGrowth
Doubao’s monthly users grew 182% in the year to May 2026; Qwen’s grew more than fiftyfold. [2]
STRONGMarket size
Standalone AI apps reached 499 million monthly users in May 2026, up 85.4% on a year earlier. [3]
STRONGOpen models
Alibaba’s Qwen models passed 700 million downloads on Hugging Face, overtaking Meta’s Llama. [5]
STRONGChina’s top 10 AI apps, June 2026
Monthly active users of standalone AI apps, measured by QuestMobile. Assistants built into phones by their makers are not counted.[1]
| Rank | App | Made by | What it is | Monthly users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doubao 豆包 | ByteDance | General AI assistant | 382 million |
| 2 | Qwen 千问 | Alibaba | General AI assistant | 167.2 million |
| 3 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | AI assistant and search | 129.8 million |
| 4 | Yuanbao 元宝 | Tencent | General AI assistant | 49.8 million |
| 5 | Ant Afu 蚂蚁阿福 | Ant Group | Specialist assistant | 29.0 million |
| 6 | Doubao Aixue 豆包爱学 | ByteDance | Homework and study help | 19.4 million |
| 7 | Jimeng 即梦AI | ByteDance | Image and video generation | Not published |
| 8 | LoveKey | — | AI social chat | Not published |
| 9 | Kimi | Moonshot AI | General AI assistant | 7.3 million |
| 10 | Kuaidui AI 快对AI | — | Homework help for students | Not published |
Why Doubao is so far ahead
Doubao comes from ByteDance, which also runs Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. It is free, and its monthly users grew 182% in the year to May 2026, leaving it about 2.3 times the size of the runner-up.
Alibaba’s Qwen is the fastest climber: its monthly users grew more than fiftyfold in the year to May 2026. DeepSeek, which drew global attention in early 2025, is third in China, and its monthly users fell 24% over the same year.[1][2]
Chinese AI beyond China
Chinese AI is also popular with developers abroad because many of its models are open-weight: anyone can download and run them. Alibaba’s Qwen family passed 700 million downloads on Hugging Face and overtook Meta’s Llama in total downloads by October 2025; developers have built more than 180,000 variants of it.[5]
Questions readers ask
What is the most used AI app in China?
Doubao (豆包) from ByteDance, with 382 million monthly users in June 2026.
Is DeepSeek popular in China?
Yes, it is the third most used AI app, with about 130 million monthly users in June 2026, but its user numbers have fallen while Doubao and Qwen have grown.
Can you use ChatGPT in China?
Not officially. OpenAI does not list mainland China or Hong Kong among the places where ChatGPT is supported.
Who makes Qwen?
Alibaba. Qwen (千问) is both a consumer app, China’s second most used AI app, and a family of open-weight models used by developers worldwide.
Is Kimi still popular?
Less than before. Kimi had about 7.3 million monthly users in June 2026, ninth among AI apps.
Sources
- HK01 / Mydrivers, QuestMobile: China’s top AI apps by monthly users, June 2026 (6 August 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
- 36Kr, QuestMobile May 2026: Doubao 368 million, Qwen and DeepSeek trends (17 June 2026, in Chinese) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
- TechNode, QuestMobile: China’s AI-native apps reach 499 million monthly active users (14 July 2026) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
- OpenAI Help Center, ChatGPT supported countries and territories · accessed 25 Oct 2026
- eHangzhou, Alibaba’s Qwen leads global open-source AI community with 700 million downloads (13 January 2026) · accessed 25 Oct 2026
Update log. 25 October 2026 — reviewed. Next review due 25 November 2026. Suggest a correction