Chinese AI Models Cost Less Only If You Can Name the Data Center

A Chinese-developed model can run in Paris or Virginia, and a Western gateway can hand your prompt to a region nobody names. This paid guide walks eleven services, what each one actually documents about inference region and retention, and where the cheap rate card hides its real cost. It also takes apart the security study everyone quoted this summer, including the methodology detail that changes what it proves and the two researchers who read it very differently.