He went on in 1818 to the University of Tübingen, but could not afford to stay there, and had to return to Zürich, where for several years he was a private tutor.

From 1824 to 1829 he studied at Munich under Friedrich Thiersch; at Göttingen, under Georg Ludolf Dissen; at Königsberg, under Christian Lobeck.

Baiter's strong point was textual criticism, applied chiefly to Cicero and the Attic orators; he was very successful in finding the best manuscript authorities, and his collations were made with the greatest accuracy.

Most of his works were produced in collaboration with other scholars, such as Johann Caspar von Orelli, who regarded him as his right-hand man.

He edited Isocrates, Panegyricus (1831); with Hermann Sauppe, Lycurgus' Leocracea (1834) and Oratores Atticae (1838–1850); with Orelli and Winckelmann, a critical edition of Plato (1839–1842), which marked a distinct advance in the text, two new manuscripts being laid under contribution; with Orelli, Babrius, Fabellae Iambicae nuper repertae (1845); Isocrates, in the Didot collection of classics (1846).