Where LaoZhang.ai fits
LaoZhang.ai has built real trust with Chinese-speaking developers: docs written Chinese-first, Telegram support, a blog that answers most pricing and how-to questions in the space, and a catalog that goes well beyond Kunavo's — Gemini text models, which Kunavo has paused, plus a long list of image and video models. If you read docs in Chinese and need one of those models, it is a natural pick.
Where Kunavo wins
Kunavo is built to be checked before you pay. Every model has one USD rate, published next to the provider's official price, with no group multiplier in between — most of the Claude and GPT catalog sits under list. Billing is Stripe-native, and the methods are on the page before signup (Pix, WeChat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay); failed requests are never billed; the balance never expires and is refunded if you close the account; and the same key reaches Suno music next to chat, image and video. For a team whose finance side wants a price and a receipt it can verify, that is the difference.
How to pick
Pick LaoZhang.ai if you work in Chinese, need Gemini or one of its image and video models, and are comfortable with group-based pricing. Pick Kunavo if your spend is on Claude and GPT and you want one published rate per model, a checkout whose methods you can see in advance, and a refundable balance. Both are OpenAI-compatible — switching later is a base_url change — so start with the one whose billing your team can live with.
How you pay: LaoZhang.ai vs Kunavo
For a buyer in the Chinese market this is often the section that decides it, and the two products answer it differently. Kunavo's checkout is Stripe-native, so the list follows the buyer rather than our billing country, and every method tops up the same prepaid API balance. Everywhere Stripe reaches: cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, JCB, UnionPay); everywhere except India, also Link and, on devices where they are set up, Apple Pay or Google Pay. In the United States: Cash App Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, ACH bank debit (3–5 business days to clear) and crypto (stablecoins), plus Affirm on top-ups of $100 and up and Zip on top-ups of $100 to $1,500. Elsewhere the local rail appears with the local currency: Alipay and WeChat Pay in mainland China; KakaoPay, Naver Pay, PAYCO, Samsung Pay and Korean domestic cards in South Korea; UPI in India; Pix in Brazil; iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, EPS in Austria, MB WAY in Portugal, Satispay in Italy; BLIK in Poland; Bacs Direct Debit in the UK (a few business days to clear); and Pay by Bank for buyers in the UK, Ireland and Finland. Stripe converts the dollar amount into local currency on the checkout page, so nobody has to hunt for a card cleared for international purchases; its rate includes a 2–4% conversion fee, which paying in dollars avoids. LaoZhang.ai's payment FAQ does not list methods: it says the ones available are whatever its top-up page shows, possibly processed by Stripe or another processor, and that enterprise payment, contracts and invoices go through support (docs.laozhang.ai, checked by them on 2026-09-24, read here on 2026-10-01). So you find out what you can pay with after you sign up. Kunavo's WeChat Pay and Alipay run through the same Stripe checkout as everything else — listed before you sign up, and the receipt is an ordinary Stripe one.