ByteDance's Doubao is the most used Chinese AI assistant, with 382 million monthly active users in June 2026 according to QuestMobile. Alibaba's Qwen app is second at 167 million and DeepSeek is third at 130 million. Tencent's Yuanbao is a distant fourth at 49.84 million. These are third-party panel estimates for mainland China mobile apps, not company disclosures. QuestMobile published them on July 14, 2026 in its first-half AI application report, which is the latest full ranking we could source.
Ranking by Monthly Active Users, June 2026
| Rank | App | Company | MAU, June 2026 | Change year on year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doubao | ByteDance | 382.3 million | +172.1% |
| 2 | Qwen (Qianwen) | Alibaba | 167.18 million | +5,792.9% |
| 3 | DeepSeek | DeepSeek | 129.82 million | -20.3% |
| 4 | Yuanbao | Tencent | 49.84 million | +100.9% |
| 5 | Afu | Ant Group | 28.97 million | Not given |
| 6 to 10 | Doubao Aixue, Jimeng AI, Lovekey, Kimi, Kuaidui AI | Various | Under 20 million each | Varies |
Source: QuestMobile's June 2026 AI-native app ranking, as published in Chinese by Tencent News and Ai-Indeed and summarised in English by TechNode. The exact figures for ranks 4 and 5 and the names in ranks 6 to 10 come from the Chinese coverage. Qwen's growth rate is large because its user base a year earlier was very small. Baidu's Wenxin app is not in the top ten. 36Kr reported it had already fallen out of the top ten in QuestMobile's March 2026 data.
How the Top Apps Have Moved
| App | September 2025 | March 2026 | June 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doubao | 172 million | 345 million | 382 million |
| DeepSeek | 145 million | 127 million | 130 million |
| Qwen | Not in the report coverage | 166 million | 167 million |
| Yuanbao | About 33 million | Not given | 49.84 million |
All three columns are QuestMobile. The September 2025 figures were reported by the South China Morning Post, and the March 2026 figures by China Biz Insider and BigGo Finance. Doubao more than doubled in nine months. DeepSeek peaked in 2025 and has been roughly flat since March. Qwen jumped during its Chinese New Year campaign and then held. After that holiday period QuestMobile put daily active users at about 140 million for Doubao, 30 million for Qwen, and 9 million for Yuanbao.
The Category by Surface, May 2026
| Surface | MAU | Change year on year |
|---|---|---|
| AI-native apps | 499 million | +85.4% |
| AI assistants built into phones by handset makers | 755 million | +14.0% |
| AI plugins inside other apps | 644 million | -7.9% |
| AI on PC websites | 172 million | -22.8% |
| AI PC clients | 18 million | +20.1% |
These totals are from QuestMobile's first-half 2026 report. Use is moving out of plugins and websites and into standalone apps. Users of AI-native apps averaged 92.7 sessions and 183 minutes a month, against 60.9 sessions for plugins and 51.4 for handset assistants.
Company-Disclosed Figures Use Different Definitions
| Company | Claim | Date | What it counts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba | Over 300 million MAU | February 2026 | Consumer-facing Qwen across all platforms, per Alibaba's December quarter results released March 19, 2026 |
| Baidu | Over 200 million MAU | January 2026 | Ernie Assistant inside Baidu search and the Baidu app, as reported by the Wall Street Journal |
| Moonshot AI | Over 36 million MAU | Late 2024 | Kimi at its peak, per Wikipedia citing Yicai. 36Kr put it at 10 to 15 million in January 2026 |
| Tencent | None | August 12, 2026 | The second quarter results name Yuanbao and give no user number |
Alibaba's 300 million and QuestMobile's 167 million are both defensible. One counts every surface where Qwen runs and the other counts one mobile app. The same gap explains Baidu: Ernie Assistant reaches 200 million people through search while the standalone Wenxin app sits outside the top ten. When comparing apps, use one measurement firm for all of them.
What Has Not Been Disclosed
- ByteDance figures for Doubao. We found no ByteDance-published monthly user number. The 382 million figure is QuestMobile's.
- DeepSeek figures. DeepSeek does not report users. See DeepSeek usage statistics.
- Exact figures below rank five. The coverage we read gives only a ceiling of 20 million for ranks 6 to 10.
- Users outside mainland China. QuestMobile measures the mainland mobile internet, so overseas use of DeepSeek, Kimi, or Qwen is not included.
- Anything after June 2026. We found no third-quarter ranking as of October 1, 2026.
For the labs behind these apps see the Chinese open-source LLM companies leaderboard. For a global comparison see the AI chatbot MAU snapshot.
Brand Visibility Implications
- One app holds most of the attention. Doubao has more than twice the users of the next app. A brand selling in China that tracks only DeepSeek or Qwen is missing the largest surface.
- Each assistant sits inside a commerce ecosystem. Doubao belongs to the owner of Douyin, Qwen to Alibaba's shopping services, Yuanbao to WeChat, and Afu to Alipay. Recommendations lean toward what each parent platform can sell or fulfil.
- Chinese-language sources decide the answer. These assistants draw on Chinese web content, so English coverage does little for visibility there.
- The ranking is not stable. Qwen went from a small base to second place in months. Baselines older than a quarter should be rerun.
Methodology
This page is built from company disclosures, regulatory filings, published surveys, and press reporting, not from Presenc AI measurements. Primary sources are used wherever one exists, including Anthropic's Series G and Series H announcements, Cursor's Series D post, Mistral's Series D announcement, Alibaba's December quarter 2025 results, and the public npm download API. Survey and panel data come from JetBrains, The Pragmatic Engineer, and QuestMobile. Where a figure comes only from press coverage, such as The Decoder on OpenAI's DevDay numbers, Dealroom's summary of Forbes on Cursor, or TechNode on QuestMobile, the page says so. Company figures are self-reported and unaudited, and third-party estimates are labelled as estimates. Status as of October 1, 2026.
How Presenc AI Helps
Presenc AI tracks how assistants including DeepSeek and Qwen describe and recommend your brand. For teams selling into China, that shows whether the models behind the largest apps name you or a competitor.