Qwen (Alibaba)
Alibaba's open-source frontier model family rivalling GPT-4
Alibaba Cloud · Language Models
Launched Sep 2023 (Qwen 1.0); Oct 2024 (Qwen 2.5)
Quick Answer
Qwen (Alibaba) is alibaba's open-source frontier model family rivalling gpt-4, made by Alibaba Cloud. It offers a free tier with paid upgrades. Key uses: Multilingual applications, Coding assistance, Mathematical reasoning.
Last updated:
Users
50M+ HuggingFace downloads; Alibaba Cloud AI platform
Valuation
Part of Alibaba Group ($300B+ market cap)
What is Qwen (Alibaba)?
Qwen (通义千问) is Alibaba Cloud's series of large language models ranging from 0.5B to 72B parameters. Qwen2.5 matches GPT-4 on coding and math benchmarks, is fully open-source under Apache 2.0, and excels in multilingual tasks especially Chinese and English. Qwen2.5-Coder and Qwen2.5-Math are specialized variants.
What's new in Qwen (Alibaba) in 2026?
Qwen3 (Apr 2025): 235B MoE model with hybrid thinking mode; top scores on AIME, GPQA, Codeforces; Qwen2.5-Max powers Alibaba's cloud; QwQ-32B reasoning model released; 50M+ downloads on HuggingFace
How much does Qwen (Alibaba) cost?
Open-Source
$0
- All model weights via HuggingFace
- Apache 2.0 license
- Commercial use allowed
Alibaba Cloud API
From ¥0.004/1K tokens
- Managed inference
- Auto-scaling
- Enterprise SLA
What can you do with Qwen (Alibaba)?
- Multilingual applications
- Coding assistance
- Mathematical reasoning
- Chinese language tasks
- Enterprise AI in Asia
Pros
- Apache 2.0 license
- Multiple sizes (0.5B–72B)
- Excellent multilingual
- Specialized math/coding variants
- Strong benchmark scores
Cons
- Chinese jurisdiction
- Less Western ecosystem support
- Alibaba Cloud tie-in for managed use
What are the best alternatives to Qwen (Alibaba)?
Compare Qwen (Alibaba) Head-to-Head
Frequently Asked Questions about Qwen (Alibaba)
How much does Qwen (Alibaba) cost?
Qwen (Alibaba) pricing: Open-Source at $0; Alibaba Cloud API at From ¥0.004/1K tokens.
Is Qwen (Alibaba) free?
Qwen (Alibaba) offers a free tier with limited usage. Paid plans unlock additional features.
What is Qwen (Alibaba) used for?
Qwen (Alibaba) is used for: Multilingual applications, Coding assistance, Mathematical reasoning, Chinese language tasks, Enterprise AI in Asia.
What are the best alternatives to Qwen (Alibaba)?
Top alternatives to Qwen (Alibaba) include Mistral AI, Llama, DeepSeek.
What platforms does Qwen (Alibaba) support?
Qwen (Alibaba) is available on: API (Alibaba Cloud), Hugging Face, Ollama, Self-hosted.
Details
Vendor
Alibaba Cloud
Category
Language Models
Pricing Model
Launched
Sep 2023 (Qwen 1.0); Oct 2024 (Qwen 2.5)
Website
qwen.readthedocs.ioUnderlying Models
Platforms
Integrations
Ideal For
- Asian market deployments
- Multilingual applications
- Math/coding tasks
- Open-source alternatives to GPT-4