I Built an API Gateway That Lets Global Developers Access Chinese LLMs

Hey Dev.to!

I just launched Asiatek AI - an API gateway that gives developers worldwide access to top Chinese large language models through a single, OpenAI-compatible API endpoint.

The Problem

Chinese LLMs like Qwen, DeepSeek, GLM, Moonshot, Baichuan, Stepfun, and MiniMax are incredibly powerful. But accessing them from outside China is painful:

• Domestic phone number verification
• Chinese payment methods only
• Separate APIs for each provider
• Different request formats

The Solution

curl https://api.asiatekai.com/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -d x27{
    "model": "qwen-plus",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
  }x27

OpenAI-compatible - switch base URL, it just works.

Available Models (15+)

Provider	Models
Alibaba	Qwen-Plus, Qwen-Turbo, Qwen-Max
DeepSeek	DeepSeek-V3, DeepSeek-Reasoner
Zhipu	GLM-4-Flash
Moonshot	Moonshot-v1-8k
Baichuan	Baichuan2-Turbo
Stepfun	Step-1-8K
MiniMax	abab6.5s-chat

Quick Start with Python

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    base_url="https://api.asiatekai.com/v1",
    api_key="your-api-key"
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="qwen-plus",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

No SDK changes. No format conversion. If it works with OpenAI, it works with Asiatek AI.

Pricing

Models start from $0.06 per million tokens. Check all pricing at asiatekai.com.

$0.5 free credit on signup to get you started.

Why I Built This

Chinese LLMs are world-class but trapped behind China tech ecosystem. I wanted to bridge that gap for international developers.

What Next

• More models (vision, audio, embeddings)
• Expanding server regions
• Better documentation

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Feedback welcome! Try it at asiatekai.com

Email: [e-mail]