WeChat's AI assistant 'Yuanbao' is here, paid chatbot may be next

AI chatbots are everywhere, and WeChat has its own AI assistant called 'Yuanbao', launched in April 2024. You can find it by searching in the app. It's powered by Tencent's Hunyuan model and can chat, answer questions, generate images, and summarize articles or pictures from your chats. It even shows 'typing...' to feel more human. But it's more of a helper than a full chatbot.

Will WeChat launch a paid AI chatbot? Meta just did—on May 27, 2025, it introduced Meta AI subscriptions starting at $7.99/month for extra computing power and complex tasks. Google and OpenAI already have similar plans. WeChat is reportedly building its own AI model, expected by 2026, and CEO Ma Huateng says they'll focus on user privacy and decentralization.

If WeChat adds a paid chatbot, it might follow this subscription model for advanced features like deep reasoning and high-quality media generation. The free version would keep basic functions. For now, WeChat's AI search already uses DeepSeek and Hunyuan T1 models, offering four response styles to boost info access.