Qwen, also called Qwen Chat, is a free AI assistant for the web, iOS, Android, macOS and Windows, powered by Alibaba Cloud's Qwen models. What decides whether it suits you is that it has no paid consumer plan, so what you get is the free app, and its privacy policy allows de-identified chats to be used for model training.
What is Qwen?
Qwen is operated and provided by NTH POWER GLOBAL TECH SINGAPORE PTE. LTD., a company registered in Singapore, and the qwen.ai footer reads "Powered by Alibaba Cloud". You use it on the web at chat.qwen.ai, in iOS and Android apps from the App Store and Google Play, and in desktop apps for macOS and Windows.
It needs an account, and the AI processing happens at Alibaba Cloud in Singapore. Qwen is free to use and open to all.
What you can do with Qwen
The model picker on chat.qwen.ai includes Qwen3.7-Plus, Qwen3.8-Max and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash. Qwen3.7-Plus is a high-performance large language model in the Qwen3.7 series for text and multimodal tasks, and Qwen3.8-Max is the flagship of the Qwen3.8 models. Qwen-Image-2.1 and Qwen3.8-LiveTranslate are also named on qwen.ai.
Web search is in the tools menu and delivers fast, real-time answers. Deep Research is an intelligent agent system that uses information on the internet to perform multi-step searches and analytical summaries, and it is a menu item on chat.qwen.ai.
You can upload structured or unstructured data files, such as CSV, Excel or text documents, and Qwen can automate data analysis, generate concise summaries and create visualizations. Qwen can process up to 1 million tokens when reading long documents in Qwen Chat.
Create Image and Create Video are in the tools menu, and you can ask for images and videos with a simple prompt or a detailed paragraph. Qwen Artifacts lets you create, reference and update dynamic HTML content and SVG images inside a conversation, with real-time visualization.
Voice conversations are available in the mobile apps, and you can ask about photos there too, and chat.qwen.ai has a Voice mode button. The desktop app can chat about email, screenshots, files and anything on your screen. The Memory feature keeps specific details from your conversations to make later responses more personalized and consistent.
Working with other people
Qwen is built around a personal account on the web, in the mobile apps and in the desktop apps. The desktop app lets you chat about email, screenshots, files and anything on your screen, and the mobile apps let you chat on the go and ask about photos.
Open models and the API
Qwen publishes open-weight models, and all of the open-weight models in the Qwen3 series are licensed under Apache 2.0. qwen.ai also announces the open-sourcing of Qwen-Image-2.1.
For developers, qwen.ai offers an API Platform and Qwen Cloud. The API is sold separately from the app and is not a consumer plan.
Qwen pricing: what each plan gives
Qwen is free to use and open to all. There is no paid consumer plan.
The Qwen API platform is sold separately for developers and is not part of the consumer app.
Privacy and security
In the privacy policy's words: "We may use de-identified user content and feedback data to train and improve the accuracy, performance, and quality of our AI models and services." The policy also covers a right to object and to withdraw consent. The Memory feature, which keeps specific details from your conversations, is part of the purposes the policy covers.
The Qwen service is operated by a company registered in Singapore, and the AI processing happens at Alibaba Cloud in Singapore. Support runs through the Help Center in the app or on the website, and the privacy contact email is for data questions.
Who Qwen suits
Qwen suits people who want a free assistant on every common device, from phone to Windows or Mac desktop, with web search, Deep Research, file analysis, image and video creation and voice. It also suits anyone who works with long documents, since it reads up to 1 million tokens in Qwen Chat, and developers who want an API from the same family of models.
It suits less well anyone who wants a paid consumer plan to upgrade to, since there is none. It also suits less well people who are not comfortable with de-identified chats being used to train the models, as the privacy policy allows exactly that.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Qwen free?
Yes. Qwen is free to use and open to all, on the web, iOS, Android, macOS and Windows. There is no paid consumer plan. Everything covered above, from web search and Deep Research to image and video creation, is part of that free app. The API platform is sold separately and is not a consumer plan.
Which models can I use in Qwen?
The model picker on chat.qwen.ai includes Qwen3.7-Plus, Qwen3.8-Max, the flagship of the Qwen3.8 models, and Qwen3.8-Omni-Flash. Image generation, video creation and document reading are in the tools menu.
Can Qwen read long documents?
Yes. Qwen can process up to 1 million tokens in Qwen Chat to pull key insights from lengthy documents, and you can upload CSV, Excel or text files for analysis, summaries and visualizations.
Does Qwen use my chats to train its models?
The privacy policy wording is: "We may use de-identified user content and feedback data to train and improve the accuracy, performance, and quality of our AI models and services." It also covers a right to object and to withdraw consent.
