How to Switch from US LLM APIs to Chinese LLM APIs Without Rewriting Your App

Switching from US LLM APIs to Chinese LLM APIs does not need to be a full rewrite. If your app uses an OpenAI-compatible interface or gateway, you can test Chinese models behind the same application contract.

Migration approach

1. Identify current AI workloads. 2. Create evaluation prompts. 3. Add a gateway or provider abstraction. 4. Test DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, MiniMax, GLM, and Doubao. 5. Compare quality, latency, cost, and compliance. 6. Route low-risk traffic first. 7. Keep rollback and fallback available.

Why this works

Many Chinese providers support familiar API patterns. A gateway makes the switch safer by centralizing model routing and logs.

Final thoughts

The best migration is gradual. Use Chinese LLM APIs where they outperform on cost, language, latency, or workload fit, and keep your app provider-flexible.