Does Hugging Face Work in China?

Is Hugging Face blocked in China?

Yes. Chinese networks block Hugging Face, on mobile data and Wi-Fi alike. GreatFire, which checks websites from test servers inside mainland China, answers “No” to whether huggingface.co opens there. It says the firewall poisons the site’s DNS, silently drops its traffic and breaks its encrypted connections, and its check on October 18, 2026 found the block still in place. The short address hf.co gets a “No” too.

The block began in 2023. GreatFire’s record first shows the site blocked on May 7, 2023, and blocked without a break since September 8, 2023. Rest of World reported in 2024 that data from GFWeb, a censorship tracker built by Nguyen Phong Hoang at the University of British Columbia, also points to May 7, 2023 for the first block. In October 2023, Semafor reported that Hugging Face had acknowledged “regrettable accessibility issues in China”. A spokesperson told Semafor that “there’s not much we can do against government regulations for now.” Beijing gave no specific reason, Rest of World said in September 2026.

Spaces, the app demos people publish on Hugging Face, run on a separate domain, according to Hugging Face’s docs. A user asked on Hugging Face’s forum in November 2025 whether that domain was now blocked in China too, and a reply said recent reports pointed that way. We found no test data to confirm it.

Hugging Face China mirror

Yes, there is one, but Hugging Face doesn’t run it. HF-Mirror is a third-party copy of Hugging Face’s site. Its home page credits a developer who goes by padeoe on GitHub, and padeoe’s repository for the site describes it as a Hugging Face mirror. The home page calls it a public-interest project to help AI developers in China download models and datasets quickly and stably (our translation). GreatFire found the mirror reachable from mainland China in its last conclusive test, on March 30, 2026; a later check, in September 2026, was inconclusive.

The mirror has limits. It doesn’t support logging in, which it says protects account security. Gated models, which you have to apply to use, must be requested on Hugging Face’s own site, where you also create the access token the mirror asks for. Its page explains how to point Hugging Face’s official download tools at the mirror.

Hugging Face China alternatives: ModelScope and MoArk

Rest of World names two Chinese model hubs that grew after the 2023 block: ModelScope and MoArk. Both offer model testing and customization, with some free use and charges for extra computing power.

• ModelScope (魔搭社区): Alibaba launched it in November 2022, and MIT Technology Review called it “sort of a domestic version of Hugging Face”. ModelScope said in March 2026 that it had 170,000 models and 250 million users, Rest of World reported, against more than 3 million open models on Hugging Face. Its home page lists recent releases from DeepSeek, Qwen and MiniMax. GreatFire last tested modelscope.cn on May 11, 2026, and found it reachable.
• MoArk (模力方舟): OSChina, which also runs the code-hosting site Gitee, launched it in 2023. Rest of World says it serves about 20,000 models.

Rest of World says developers in China pick the domestic hubs mainly for faster downloads, but still prefer to reach Hugging Face through a VPN. “Hugging Face and GitHub are the default in the open-source space,” an independent developer in Kunming told it. In a September 2025 r/LocalLLaMA thread, a commenter said the big Chinese labs use ModelScope too. For code hosting, see GitHub in China.

How to use Hugging Face in China

Reaching Hugging Face from China means getting your traffic out of the mainland first, either on a roaming eSIM that exits through a gateway abroad or through a VPN. Arrange it before your flight; our guide to whether you need an eSIM, a VPN or both helps you choose.

A laptop can run on a phone’s travel eSIM. Airalo, an eSIM seller, says data on its China plans travels through gateways beyond the mainland, and that its eSIMs can be shared by hotspot where the phone and network allow it. That only lasts while you’re on eSIM data: Airalo’s wording excludes hotel Wi-Fi.

Not every plan routes abroad. Chinese SIM cards and China-specific eSIMs usually get the same filtering as any local line, Salil Kanhere, who works on cybersecurity at UNSW, said in comments to the Bega District News in July 2026. He suggested buying and installing the eSIM before the trip, since eSIM sellers’ sites may be out of reach after you arrive. Compare plans and their routing on our eSIM page.

A VPN covers any network, including hotel Wi-Fi. Keeping one connected is harder in 2026: MyChinaGuide, whose site advertises its free travel app, says Chinese carriers now detect and block VPN servers far faster than before. Check which VPN works in China now before you pick one.

On the legal side, Rest of World says Beijing quietly tolerates AI labs bypassing the block to share their models on Hugging Face, but that Chinese authorities have occasionally penalized citizens for getting around the firewall without authorization. Britain’s China travel advice adds that, under Chinese cybersecurity law, VPNs and other online services must be licensed by the government. Our guide to VPN legality in China covers what the rules say and who has been penalized.

Related guides

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• AI tools in China
• Working remotely from China
• eSIM or VPN for China?