Is the Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (Qwen) API free?

The offer

Offer class

Credits, not a standing free tier

Recorded as: credits (new-user free quota, per model)

“When you first activate Alibaba Cloud Model Studio (Singapore region) , the platform automatically grants you a free quota for various models.”

“Each model (such as qwen-plus, qwen3.6-plus, or qwen3.6-plus-2026-04-02) has its own independent free quota (typically 1,000,000 tokens).”

“The free quota is valid for 90 days, starting from the date you activate Alibaba Cloud Model Studio, the model is released, or your model request is approved (whichever is later).”

How to get it

"You must complete your account information before activating Model Studio. After completing your information, visit Alibaba Cloud Model Studio - Singapore. After reading and agreeing to the service agreement, the system automatically activates Alibaba Cloud Model Studio and grants you a free quota (The free quota is available only in the Singapore region)."

Card required

Not stated

61 text-generation model IDs on the pricing page show a '1 million tokens' free quota (dated snapshots count separately and each has its own quota), including third-party deepseek-v4-pro, deepseek-v4.1-flash, glm-5.1/5.2/5.3. Free quota applies to Singapore region, International deployment scope only.

Does it train on your data?

Restrictions

• Singapore / International only

  “Only models in the Singapore region with the service deployment scope set to International are eligible for a free quota. Models in other regions or with different service scopes are not eligible.”

• Auto-billing after quota

  “After the free quota is exhausted, you are automatically billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. To avoid unexpected charges, enable Free Quota Only in advance so that the service stops when the quota runs out.”

• Free Quota Only is off by default

  “Worry-free mode (Free Quota Only) is disabled by default; enable it in the console if needed.”

• Real-time inference only

  “The free quota does not cover batch invocation, model fine-tuning, model deployment, custom models (fine-tuned or deployed models), PAI-DSW, or OSS storage and request fees.”

• Expiry regardless of use

  “Once the free quota expires, it automatically becomes invalid regardless of whether it has been fully used.”

• One per account

  “Re-registering a new account does not grant an additional new user free quota.”

• Plan keys excluded

  “Note that Token Plan or Coding Plan dedicated API keys do not consume free quota; only a general-purpose pay-as-you-go API key draws from your free quota.”

• Separate OAuth quota

  “OAuth authentication provides an independent free quota for model inference (2,000 calls per day), which is separate from the API key free quota system in the Alibaba Cloud Model Studio console.”

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