Yes, Qwen is free to use as a chat assistant. Qwen's official page describes Qwen Chat as free to use and open to all. Developers using Qwen models through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio get a separate free quota, typically 1,000,000 tokens per model, valid for 90 days after activation in the Singapore region. After that, API use is billed pay as you go.
Qwen is Alibaba's family of AI models, and it's become one of the names people compare with ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek. Whether it's free depends on how you use it. Chatting in the app is one thing. Calling Qwen from your own software is another, and that's where the small print matters.
The two ways to use Qwen for free
| Route | Free? | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Qwen Chat (web and app) | Yes | Free to use, open to all, according to Qwen |
| Alibaba Cloud Model Studio API | Free quota for new users | Per model, typically 1,000,000 tokens, valid for 90 days, Singapore region only |
| API after the quota | No | Billed pay as you go |
If you're not a developer, you only need the first row. Qwen Chat is the free assistant, and the Model Studio rules below only apply if you're building with the API.
What free Qwen Chat can do
Qwen's own overview lists a wide set of features in the free assistant:
- Reasoning through harder questions in maths, science and coding.
- Web search with sources for current topics.
- Uploading CSV, Excel or text files for analysis, summaries and charts, with Qwen saying it can process up to 1 million tokens.
- Working with audio, images and video without switching models.
- Creating images and videos from a prompt.
- Qwen Artifacts for building HTML pages and SVG images inside the chat.
For a small business, the file analysis is the useful one. You can drop in a sales export or a survey spreadsheet and ask for a summary. Just don't upload anything you wouldn't want stored on someone else's servers.
If you want the background on the models themselves, my explainer on what Qwen is covers where it came from and how it compares.
How the free API quota works
Alibaba Cloud's documentation is detailed, and a few rules are easy to miss:
- Only models in the Singapore region with the service scope set to International get a free quota.
- You have to complete your account information before you can activate Model Studio and receive the quota.
- The quota lasts 90 days from activation, the model's release or your request approval, whichever is later.
- Unused quota still expires. Alibaba says the countdown isn't paused by inactivity, and expired quota isn't reissued.
- Each model has its own quota. A dated snapshot version and the latest version count as two separate models.
- Input and output tokens come out of one combined total.
- Re-registering a new account doesn't give you another new user quota.
Alibaba also says the free quota only covers real-time inference. Batch calls, fine-tuning, model deployment and storage aren't included.
The setting that stops surprise charges
This is the detail I'd want every reader to see. Alibaba says that after the free quota runs out, you're automatically billed pay as you go. To avoid that, you can turn on a setting called Free Quota Only, which stops the service when the quota is used up. Alibaba says it's off by default, so you have to switch it on in the console yourself.
Another gotcha: when one model's quota is gone, Model Studio doesn't move you to another model that still has quota. You have to change the model name in your code or tool.
Sharing the quota with your team
If more than one person on your team builds with Qwen, know that the quota is shared. Alibaba says an Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users, the sub-accounts you create for colleagues, share a single free quota. Its example: if a model's quota is 1,000,000 tokens and the main account uses 100,000 while a RAM user uses 200,000, there are 700,000 left for everyone.
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How to start using Qwen for free
- For chat, open Qwen Chat in your browser or the app and start a conversation.
- For the API, create an Alibaba Cloud account and complete your account information.
- Open Model Studio in the Singapore region and agree to the service agreement to activate it.
- Turn on Free Quota Only before you make your first call.
- Note the activation date so you know when the 90 days end.
Qwen or another free model?
If you'd rather run a model on your own machine with no quota at all, open models are worth a look. My guide on where to download free AI models lists the safest places to get them. And if you're weighing Chinese models against Western ones, my comparison of DeepSeek and Claude is a useful reference point.
My verdict
Qwen is free for everyday chat, and the assistant is more capable than most people expect. For developers, the free API quota is a generous trial rather than a free plan: it's tied to the Singapore region, it expires after 90 days whether you use it or not, and it rolls into paid billing unless you switch on Free Quota Only first. Turn that setting on before you write a single line of code.
Frequently asked questions
Is Qwen Chat free?
Yes. Qwen's official page describes Qwen Chat as free to use and open to all.
Is the Qwen API free?
New Alibaba Cloud Model Studio users get a free quota per model, typically 1,000,000 tokens, valid for 90 days in the Singapore region. After that, use is billed pay as you go.
Does the Qwen free quota expire?
Yes. Alibaba says the quota expires after 90 days even if you haven't used it, and expired quota isn't reissued.
How do I avoid being charged after the free quota?
Turn on Free Quota Only in the Model Studio console. Alibaba says it stops the service when the quota runs out, and it's off by default.
Is the Qwen free quota shared with my team?
Yes. Alibaba says an Alibaba Cloud account and its RAM users share a single free quota.
Can I get a new free quota with a new account?
No. Alibaba says re-registering a new account doesn't grant an additional new user free quota.
