At a product briefing for the Baidu application in Beijing on October 30, the company announced that its search engine has achieved what is called recursive self-evolution. Additionally, an updated search AI API was launched at a promotional price, which Baidu claims is lower than DeepSeek's search API.
Self-evolution is described as a closed loop involving information extraction, feedback, and retraining. Every real search and subsequent user feedback are used as training signals and fed back into the system, allowing the models to continuously improve without manual intervention. Baidu asserts that thanks to this online feedback loop, several agents improve collaboratively, and the overall efficiency of iterations has increased by more than 80 percent. The company has not published independent evaluations of this claim.
The API is based on a four-layer architecture, which Baidu calls AI-native. The content layer uses data from over 80 languages and an index containing hundreds of billions of high-quality pages, with data reliability increasing by more than 50 percent, according to the company. The self-evolution mechanism functions at the engine level. The architectural layer ensures low latency and high concurrent request processing for enterprise use. The application supports access via API, MCP, and a set of skills. Baidu reports that the quality of its own assistant has improved by 20 percent after integration.
According to the Baidu AI Cloud campaign page, the enhanced search package costs 4.9 yuan per 1000 queries under a promotion running from October 30 to December 31, compared to the regular price of 40 yuan. Buyers can make repeat purchases until reaching a cumulative limit of 1 million queries, after which the standard price applies. The flagship package will cost 9.9 yuan per 1000 queries, which is lower than the initial price of 72 yuan, and requires an invitation code. Results provided include the website, title, URL, and source snippet for verification purposes.
A consumer version of the application was also presented during the briefing. Baidu notes that search is transforming from a 'one question—one answer' format to a 'one task—one result' format. Complex queries are processed through multi-step searches that provide a verified summary; routine tasks are executed directly, and long-term topics can be tracked using user-consented notifications. This functionality covers over 170 use cases. Interactive result pages now appear in five times more scenarios and utilize over 5 billion data resources from government agencies, utilities, and the central bank. Furthermore, the AI camera feature can now simultaneously track multiple objects and hold a live dialogue in nine Chinese dialects, including Northeastern, Sichuanese, and Cantonese.
