Chien API Review: Pricing & Comparison

Official channels: why this label matters

In the domestic AI relay market, “direct relay through official channels” and “reverse engineering” are two fundamentally different technical approaches:

Official channels: the operator has secured API access from the upstream provider (OpenAI/Anthropic/etc.), your request is forwarded through the relay to the official API endpoint, and you get back the genuine model response.

Reverse engineering: model responses are obtained by cracking a web interface or using an unofficial endpoint, with no protocol-level guarantee — the official provider can change the interface at any time and break the service, and there are also potential data-security concerns.

Chien API (chienapi.top) explicitly states it relays through official channels — meaning what you get back is genuine GPT/Claude output, not a response obtained through unauthorized means. For use cases with real requirements around data quality and compliance, that distinction matters in practice.

Integration example

from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your Chien API key",
    base_url="https://api.chienapi.top/v1"  # check the official site for the actual endpoint
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gpt-5-5",
    messages=[
        {"role": "user", "content": "Write me a Python function that takes a list and returns all the even numbers"}
    ]
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

What an exchange rate of ¥1-2/USD means in practice

GPT-5.5’s official pricing is roughly $2/million input tokens and $8/million output tokens (check the official site for the current rate).

At a mid-range exchange rate of ¥1.5/USD, that works out to:

• Input: roughly ¥3/million tokens
• Output: roughly ¥12/million tokens

That price sits in the middle of the domestic relay range — more expensive than reverse-engineered low-price platforms, but cheaper than topping up officially yourself (which requires an overseas credit card), while still carrying the guarantees that come with an official channel.

For developers who use GPT occasionally and don’t want to deal with the hassle of an overseas credit card and payment issues, Chien API is a practical option.

If Claude is your primary need, CloseAI or a dedicated Opus relay is more focused on Claude coverage; if you need broad multi-model choice, DMXAPI or 147API covers more ground.

Information verified 2026-07-04. Chien API is currently marked as unverified status — we’d recommend signing up and verifying service quality yourself before relying on it.

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