Chinese AI labs are shipping faster than anyone. But which model should you actually use? We tested all major models for Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and English tasks. Here is the definitive tier list for Southeast Asian developers.

S-Tier: Best Overall

DeepSeek V4 Pro

$0.28/1M input | $0.56/1M output

Best Vietnamese + English quality overall
128K context window — handles entire codebases
Native function calling + JSON mode
Winner for: chatbots, coding, translation, RAG

A-Tier: Excellent Specialists

Qwen 3 (Qwen3-Max)

~$0.40/1M input | ~$0.80/1M output

Strongest multilingual — Thai and Bahasa Indonesia notably good
Excellent vision/multimodal capabilities
Open-weight versions available for self-hosting
Winner for: multimodal, multilingual, self-hosted

GLM-5 (ChatGLM)

~$0.40/1M input | ~$0.80/1M output

Best Chinese-English translation quality
Strong reasoning and math benchmarks
Good at following complex instructions
Winner for: translation, complex reasoning, education

B-Tier: Solid Value

Moonshot (Kimi)

~$0.14/1M input | ~$0.28/1M output

Cheapest option — half the price of DeepSeek
Good for simple Q&A and classification tasks
128K context (matches DeepSeek)
Winner for: budget applications, simple automation

Quick Comparison Table

Model	Input $/1M	VI Quality	EN Quality	Context	Tools
DeepSeek V4 Pro	$0.28	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	128K	✅
Qwen 3 Max	$0.40	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	128K	✅
GLM-5	$0.40	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐	128K	✅
Moonshot	$0.14	⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐	128K	⚠️
GPT-4o	$2.50	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	128K	✅

The Bottom Line

For most SEA developers, DeepSeek V4 Pro is the clear winner. It matches GPT-4o quality for Vietnamese and English, costs 89% less, and works with existing OpenAI SDK code.

When you need specific strengths — multimodal (Qwen), translation (GLM), or extreme budget (Moonshot) — the alternatives are available through the same NexAPI endpoint.

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Chinese AI Models Tier List for SEA Developers (2026)