Alibaba Cloud Qwen API Pricing in 2026: Free Tier, Model Studio Costs, and Cheapest Alternatives
Complete breakdown of Alibaba Cloud Model Studio pricing for Qwen 3.6 Plus, Qwen 3.5, Qwen 3 Max, and more. 1M free tokens per model, plus how third-party providers compare.
Alibaba Cloud’s Model Studio is the first-party home for Qwen models — and it comes with one of the most generous free tiers in AI inference. If you’re evaluating Qwen for production, here’s what you’ll actually pay.
Alibaba Cloud’s free tier
New users get 1 million free tokens per model on most proprietary Qwen models in the Singapore region. That’s not 1M tokens total — it’s 1M tokens each for Qwen 3 Max, Qwen 3.6 Plus, QwQ-Plus, and more.
Key details:
- Validity: 90 days after activating Model Studio
- Region: Singapore deployment only (no free quota for Chinese Mainland or Global regions)
- Scope: Real-time inference only — excludes batch calls, context caching, fine-tuning, and model deployment
- Shared: Free quota is pooled across your account and all RAM (sub) users
To avoid unexpected charges after the free quota runs out, enable the “Free quota only” toggle in the console — the service will stop instead of switching to pay-as-you-go.
For full details, see Alibaba’s free quota documentation.
Alibaba Cloud Model Studio pricing
Here’s what you’ll pay after the free tier, for international (Singapore region) deployments:
Proprietary models
| Model | Input/1M | Output/1M | Free Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3 Max | $1.20 | $6.00 | 1M tokens |
| Qwen 3 Max (Thinking) | $3.00 | $15.00 | 1M tokens |
| Qwen 3.6 Plus | $0.40 | $2.40 | 1M tokens |
| Qwen-Plus | $0.40 | $1.20 | 1M tokens |
| QwQ-Plus | $0.80 | $2.40 | 1M tokens |
| Qwen-Flash | $0.05 | $0.40 | 1M tokens |
Open-source Qwen 3.5 series
| Model | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.5 397B | $1.20 | $6.00 |
| Qwen 3.5 122B | $0.40 | $2.40 |
| Qwen 3.5 72B | $0.20 | $0.60 |
| Qwen 3.5 35B | $0.10 | $0.40 |
| Qwen 3.5 9B | $0.05 | $0.40 |
Open-source Qwen 3 series
| Model | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3 235B | $0.40 | $2.40 |
| Qwen 3 32B | $0.20 | $0.60 |
| Qwen 3 8B | $0.05 | $0.40 |
For the full and most up-to-date list, see the official pricing page.
How does Alibaba compare to third-party providers?
Being the first-party provider doesn’t always mean cheapest. Here’s how Alibaba’s pricing stacks up against alternatives from our directory:
Qwen 3 235B
| Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Novita AI | $0.20 | $0.80 |
| Alibaba Cloud | $0.40 | $2.40 |
| OpenRouter | $0.46 | $1.82 |
| Fireworks AI | $1.20 | $1.20 |
Novita AI undercuts Alibaba by 50% on input and 67% on output for the flagship Qwen 3 235B.
Qwen 3 32B
| Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter | $0.08 | $0.24 |
| Novita AI | $0.10 | $0.45 |
| Alibaba Cloud | $0.20 | $0.60 |
| Groq | $0.29 | $0.59 |
| Fireworks AI | $0.90 | $0.90 |
OpenRouter offers Qwen 3 32B at 60% less than Alibaba’s price.
Qwen 3.6 Plus
| Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud | $0.40 | $2.40 |
| Fireworks AI | $0.90 | $0.90 |
As a proprietary model, Qwen 3.6 Plus has limited availability. Alibaba Cloud is the primary source, with Fireworks being the only third-party alternative currently listed — and its pricing is actually cheaper on output ($0.90 vs $2.40) but more expensive on input ($0.90 vs $0.40).
Qwen 3.5 397B
| Provider | Input/1M | Output/1M |
|---|---|---|
| DeepInfra | $0.54 | $3.40 |
| Novita AI | $0.60 | $3.60 |
| Alibaba Cloud | $1.20 | $6.00 |
For the largest Qwen 3.5, DeepInfra and Novita AI offer 50%+ savings over Alibaba’s direct pricing.
When to use Alibaba Cloud directly
Despite third-party providers often being cheaper per-token, there are good reasons to go direct:
- Free tier: 1M tokens per model is hard to beat for evaluation and prototyping
- First to get new models: Qwen 3.6 Plus and other proprietary models appear on Alibaba first
- Full model lineup: Alibaba has every Qwen variant including embeddings, TTS, and image models
- Batch inference: 50% discount on batch calls — which can make Alibaba cheaper than third parties for high-volume offline workloads
- Chinese Mainland pricing: If you’re serving users in China, Alibaba’s Beijing region pricing is 60-70% cheaper than Singapore rates
Getting started
- Sign up at Alibaba Cloud and activate Model Studio
- Select the Singapore region to get your free quota
- Enable “Free quota only” to avoid surprise charges
- Use the OpenAI-compatible API endpoint — drop-in replacement for most SDKs
The API is OpenAI-compatible, so you can point any existing OpenAI SDK integration at Alibaba’s endpoint with minimal code changes.
For a full comparison of Qwen pricing across all providers, check the Qwen models on Inference Hub.