Tencent Yuanbao is Tencent's AI assistant for chat, writing and creative work, on web, desktop, mobile and as a browser extension.
Overview #
Tencent Yuanbao #
Tencent Yuanbao is the consumer AI assistant from Tencent, the company behind WeChat and QQ. It is a chat app for answering questions, writing and creative work, and it supports group chats where several people talk with the assistant together. Yuanbao runs on Tencent's own Hy large language models; Tencent's November 2026 release of Hy4 lists Yuanbao among the products that already serve it. The interface is built for Chinese-speaking users, and you sign in with a WeChat, QQ or phone account.
Production credibility: Yuanbao is built and operated by Tencent; its download centre names Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems as the developer. On 4 November 2026 Tencent announced Hy4, its latest large language model and the first in the Hy line with visual understanding and computer-use abilities, and named Yuanbao alongside WorkBuddy, CodeBuddy and ima as products where Hy4 is available. Tencent says it plans to publish the Hy4 weights and system cards in the following days; the August Hy4 preview it released as open weights has 770 billion total parameters, 49 billion active, and a context window of more than one million tokens. Tencent's benchmark results for Hy4 are its own and have not been independently verified. Yuanbao itself is free to use, with apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, a web version and a browser extension. Developers who want the underlying models pay per token through Tencent Cloud TokenHub instead.
Key Features
- Chat assistant for questions, explanations and everyday writing
- An AI Creation section for creative tasks
- Group chats where several people talk with the assistant together
- Runs on Tencent's own Hy models, now including Hy4
- Apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, plus web and a browser extension
- Sign-in with WeChat, QQ or a phone number
Ideal Use Case
Chinese-speaking users who live in WeChat and QQ and want a free AI assistant tied to the same account, across phone and desktop. It also gives researchers and product teams a direct way to see how Tencent's Hy models behave in a consumer product before building on the same models through Tencent Cloud.
How Tencent Yuanbao differentiates
Yuanbao competes most directly with ByteDance's Doubao, Moonshot's Kimi and Alibaba's Qwen app, all free Chinese-language assistants backed by in-house models. Its distinct angle is the Tencent account system: WeChat and QQ sign-in and group chats with the assistant. For English-first users, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini remain the more practical choices, since Yuanbao's interface and content are aimed at China.
FAQ
Q: What is Tencent Yuanbao? A: Tencent Yuanbao is Tencent's AI assistant app. It answers questions, helps with writing and creative tasks, and supports group chats, and it runs on Tencent's own Hy language models.
Q: Is Tencent Yuanbao free? A: Yes. Yuanbao is free to use on web, desktop and mobile. Developers who want Tencent's Hy models through an API pay per token on Tencent Cloud TokenHub instead.
Q: What model does Yuanbao use? A: Yuanbao runs on Tencent's Hy family of models. Tencent's 4 November 2026 announcement of Hy4 lists Yuanbao among the products where the new model is available.
Q: Which platforms does Yuanbao support? A: Yuanbao's download centre offers apps for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, a web version at yuanbao.tencent.com and a browser extension.
Q: Can I use Yuanbao in English? A: Parts of the web interface appear in English, but Yuanbao is designed for Chinese-speaking users and signs in with WeChat, QQ or a phone number, so English-first users may find other assistants easier.
tl;dr
Tencent Yuanbao is Tencent's free AI assistant for chat, writing and creative work, available on web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and as a browser extension. It runs on Tencent's own Hy models, including Hy4, announced on 4 November 2026.