Qwen API Pricing Calculator & Cost Guide
Calculate Qwen (Alibaba Tongyi Qianwen) API costs for 51 models. Compare per-token pricing across Qwen Max, Plus, Turbo, Flash, and Qwen-Coder.
Pricing TLDR
- • Pay-per-token with no monthly fees, priced separately for input and output
- • Turbo and Flash are the cheapest tiers; Qwen Max is the flagship
- • 51 Qwen models with live rates from the OpenRouter catalog
Qwen API Cost Calculator: Monthly Pricing
Calculate by
Input Tokens
Output Tokens
API Calls / Month
Quick Examples:
Sort:
(qwen/qwen3.8-max)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $2.00
Out: $6.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.8-2.4t-a95b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $2.00
Out: $6.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.8-27b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.43
Out: $2.55
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.7-max)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $1.48
Out: $4.43
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.6-max-preview)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $1.03
Out: $6.16
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.6-plus)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.33
Out: $1.95
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.7-plus)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.32
Out: $1.28
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.6-27b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.60
Out: $3.60
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-27b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.20
Out: $1.56
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-397b-a17b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.39
Out: $2.34
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-122b-a10b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.26
Out: $2.08
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-max-thinking)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.78
Out: $3.90
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.14
Out: $1.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-35b-a3b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.25
Out: $1.25
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-max)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.78
Out: $3.90
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-9b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.10
Out: $0.15
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-coder-next)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.12
Out: $0.80
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-thinking)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.40
Out: $4.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-thinking-2507)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.23
Out: $2.30
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-coder)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.30
Out: $1.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-next-80b-a3b-thinking)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.15
Out: $1.20
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b-thinking-2507)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.20
Out: $2.40
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.21
Out: $1.90
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.07
Out: $0.28
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.10
Out: $1.10
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-thinking)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.20
Out: $2.40
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.45
Out: $1.82
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-32b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.08
Out: $0.28
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-32b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.10
Out: $0.42
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-14b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.12
Out: $0.24
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-8b-thinking)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.18
Out: $2.10
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.13
Out: $0.52
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.12
Out: $0.50
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen-2.5-72b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.36
Out: $0.40
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.05
Out: $0.19
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-vl-8b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.12
Out: $0.45
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-8b)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.12
Out: $0.45
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen-2.5-coder-32b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.66
Out: $1.00
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.7-flash)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.03
Out: $0.13
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-flash-02-23)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.07
Out: $0.26
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.09
Out: $0.35
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen-2.5-7b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.10
Out: $0.20
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.8-flash)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.15
Out: $0.47
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.6-flash)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.19
Out: $1.13
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-coder-flash)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.20
Out: $0.98
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen2.5-vl-72b-instruct)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.25
Out: $0.75
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen-plus-2025-07-28)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.26
Out: $0.78
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen-plus)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.26
Out: $0.78
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-plus-02-15)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.26
Out: $1.56
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3.5-plus-20260420)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.30
Out: $1.80
Monthly Cost
(qwen/qwen3-coder-plus)
Context
Quality
Popularity
Per 1M Tokens
In: $0.65
Out: $3.25
Monthly Cost
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About Qwen
What is Qwen?
Qwen (Tongyi Qianwen) is Alibaba's family of large language models, served through Alibaba Model Studio. The lineup spans the latest Qwen3 models, the Qwen2.5 tiers (Max, Plus, Turbo, and Flash), dedicated Qwen-Coder models for code, and a wide range of open-weight sizes from tiny to very large. Pricing is per token, billed separately for input and output.
- A Model for Every Cost Tier: Qwen Turbo and Flash handle high-volume, simple tasks cheaply. Qwen Plus balances cost and capability for most production work, and Qwen Max takes on the hardest reasoning and agentic workloads. Pick the smallest tier that clears your quality bar.
- One of the Largest Open-Weight Families: Qwen ships open weights across an unusually wide range of sizes, from small models you can run on a laptop up to very large ones for serious inference. Few labs offer both a hosted API and this breadth of self-hostable models.
- Dedicated Coder Models: Beyond general chat, Qwen-Coder models target code generation and completion, priced on the same per-token basis. Strong price to performance across the range is the family's main draw.
When to Use Qwen
Qwen is a strong fit when you want frontier-adjacent quality at a lower price than GPT or Claude, or when open weights across many sizes matter for self-hosting.
Ideal for
- Cost-sensitive production workloads at scale
- Teams that want open weights plus a hosted API option
- Self-hosting across a wide range of model sizes
- High-volume classification, extraction, and routing
- Code generation via Qwen-Coder
Not ideal for
- Tasks that need the absolute top of the quality leaderboard
- Workloads dependent on provider-specific features like prompt caching
- Teams that cannot use a China-based hosted provider for policy reasons
Qwen Pricing Breakdown
How Qwen API Billing Works
Per-Token Pricing
Each model has separate input (prompt) and output (completion) rates per million tokens. Output is usually priced higher than input. You pay only for tokens processed, with no monthly minimum.
Model Tiers Set the Price
Cost scales with capability: Turbo and Flash are the cheapest, then Qwen Plus, then Qwen Max at the top. Choosing the right tier for each task is the single biggest lever on your bill.
Free and Open Options
Alibaba Model Studio offers trial quotas, and Qwen's open-weight models can be self-hosted at no per-token cost. Some Qwen models are also free with rate limits on OpenRouter for testing.
Usage Tracking
Monitor spend per model and per key in the Model Studio console. Set alerts so a runaway job or a switch to a pricier tier does not surprise you at the end of the month.
Qwen API Monthly Cost Estimates
Hobby / Testing
$0-15/mo
• Turbo / Flash
• <1K requests/day
• Single project
Light Use
$15-75/mo
• Qwen Plus
• 1-5K requests/day
• Mixed tasks
Medium Use
$75-400/mo
• Qwen Plus
• 5-20K requests/day
• Production apps
Heavy Use
$400+/mo
• Qwen Max
• 20K+ requests/day
• Agentic workloads
5 Qwen Cost Optimization Tips
Match the Model to the Task
Do not run Qwen Max on work that Turbo or Plus handles well. Reserve the flagship for genuinely hard reasoning, and route classification, extraction, and simple chat to the cheap tiers.
Self-Host the Open Models
For steady high-volume workloads, self-hosting an open-weight Qwen size that fits your hardware can undercut per-token API pricing once your usage is predictable enough to keep a GPU busy.
Trim Input Tokens
Input tokens cost money on every call. Use concise system prompts, summarize long context instead of pasting whole documents, and drop history you do not need.
Cap Output Length
Output tokens usually cost more than input. Set max_tokens, ask for structured or terse responses, and avoid open-ended generations when a short answer will do.
Track Spend with CostGoat
Watch your Qwen credit balance and usage in real time with CostGoat. Get desktop or email alerts before you run low, and see which models drive your spend.
Start Tracking Your LLM API Spending
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Qwen API Pricing FAQ
Common questions about Qwen (Alibaba Tongyi Qianwen) API costs and billing
