Guide
How to Use Qwen API in English (Alibaba Cloud AI)
April 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Qwen (pronounced "chwen") is Alibaba's flagship AI model family. Qwen Plus rivals Claude Sonnet in quality, and Qwen Turbo is one of the cheapest capable models available. But accessing Qwen directly requires an Alibaba Cloud account with Chinese payment — until now.
Qwen Models Available
| Model | Price $/M | Context | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen Plus | $0.13/$1.87 | 128K | Flagship, strong reasoning |
| Qwen Turbo | $0.08/$0.31 | 128K | Budget, fast responses |
Why Qwen?
- Qwen Plus at $0.13/M input — 29x cheaper than GPT-5.4, comparable quality
- 128K context window — process long documents easily
- Excellent multilingual — best Chinese+English bilingual performance
- Qwen Turbo at $0.08/M — cheapest capable model after GLM-4 Flash
Quick Start (5 minutes)
pip install openai
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.aipower.me/v1",
api_key="YOUR_AIPOWER_KEY",
)
# Qwen Plus — Alibaba's flagship
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="qwen/qwen-plus",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Explain machine learning"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)No Chinese account needed. Get your API key and 50 free calls at aipower.me.