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Doubao

Doubao is ByteDance's AI chatbot, opened for invitation testing in August 2023 and later offering text, image and voice generation, AI search and video generation.[^1][^2]

Era Generative AI for everyone

2026 · 2 20232026
Events per year
Release date
Developer
ByteDance

What it is

Doubao (豆包) is an AI chatbot app from ByteDance. It opened for invitation testing in August 2023 on the web, and as iOS (through TestFlight) and Android apps. Users could register with a phone number, a Douyin account or an Apple ID.[1] Douyin is ByteDance's domestic short-video platform.

Early features included chat, writing assistance and English-learning support.[1] The app is powered by the Doubao large models, which are served through Volcano Engine, ByteDance's cloud unit. The chatbot supports text, image and voice generation, along with AI-powered search.[2]

Origins

The international counterpart, Dola, previously called Cici, also launched in August 2023. Dola originally ran on OpenAI's GPT and Google's Gemini models.[2]

Main features and growth

By May 2024 the app had more than 100 million downloads and over 26 million monthly active users. ByteDance planned to bring Doubao into more than 50 of its apps, including Douyin.[3] Video generation was added in November 2024, and by that month the app had about 60 million monthly active users and was China's most popular AI chatbot.[2]

QuestMobile counted 155 million weekly active users for Doubao in early December 2025, against 20.8 million for Tencent's Yuanbao.[5]

Doubao also reached other devices. In August 2025 it was reported to be the in-car voice assistant for Tesla vehicles in mainland China.[2] On 1 December 2025 ByteDance announced a Doubao-powered AI voice assistant built into ZTE's Nubia M153 phone.[4]

Model updates

Doubao-Seed-2.0 became available in the Doubao app on 14 February 2026, and Seed2.1 was offered to Doubao users from June 2026.[6][7] By May 2026 Doubao had about 330 million users, and ByteDance announced paid subscription tiers that month.[2]

Current position

Doubao's user-created AI agents feature was discontinued in July 2026 to comply with new regulations that took effect on 15 July 2026.[2] The international version, Dola, began moving to ByteDance's own Seed models in February 2026, with full rollout in April 2026.[2]

CapabilitiesLarge language modelsMultimodal

ApplicationsConsumer apps

Ecosystem & regionChina

HistoryProduct history

20262

  1. ReleaseByteDance releases Seed2.1

    On 23 June 2026 ByteDance Seed announced Seed2.1 for Doubao and Volcano Engine users. It has Pro and Turbo models for productivity work and builds on Seed2.0.

  2. ReleaseByteDance releases Doubao-Seed-2.0

    On 14 February 2026 ByteDance released the Doubao-Seed-2.0 series in the Doubao app and on Volcano Engine, with Pro, Lite and Mini general agent models. Seed2.0 Pro was positioned against GPT-5.2 and Gemini 3 Pro.

20241

  1. ReleaseVolcano Engine launches the Doubao model family and cuts LLM prices

    On 15 May 2024 Volcano Engine, ByteDance's cloud unit, launched the Doubao model family and priced its main model far below rivals, starting a price war in China's enterprise AI market.

20231

  1. ReleaseByteDance begins testing the Doubao chatbot and its Skylark model

    In August 2023 a ByteDance subsidiary opened its Doubao chatbot for invitation testing, built on a model called Skylark that was among the first LLMs to pass China's algorithm registry.

Developed by1

ByteDance

Powered by5

Seed2.1 (Doubao Seed 2.1)Doubao model family (Doubao Pro, 2024)Seed2.0 (Doubao-Seed-2.0)Seedance 1.5 proSkylark (Yunque)

Notes and sources

  1. ByteDance's subsidiary tests its AI robot Doubaohttps://technode.com/2023/08/18/bytedances-subsidiary-tests-its-ai-robot-doubao/
  2. Doubaohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doubao
  3. ByteDance Enters AI Arena With Doubao, Offering Ultra-Low Cost and Versatile Applicationshttps://www.caixinglobal.com/2024-05-16/bytedance-enters-ai-arena-with-doubao-offering-ultra-low-cost-and-versatile-applications-102196732.html
  4. ByteDancehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ByteDance
  5. ByteDance Unveils Doubao 2.0 AI Model to Tackle Complex Taskshttps://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-02-15/bytedance-unveils-doubao-20-ai-model-to-tackle-complex-tasks-102414865.html
  6. ByteDance releases Doubao-Seed-2.0, positions Pro model against GPT 5.2 and Gemini 3 Prohttps://technode.com/2026/02/14/bytedance-releases-doubao-seed-2-0-positions-pro-model-against-gpt-5-2-and-gemini-3-pro/
  7. Seed2.1 Officially Released: Advancing AI Productivityhttps://seed.bytedance.com/en/blog/seed2-1-officially-released-advancing-ai-productivity

Cite this page: Doubao. TellWorld, https://www.tellworld.net/products/doubao. Updated 2026-11-08