---
title: Alibaba (Qwen)
url: https://arcana.otnelhq.com/docs/providers/alibaba
---

# Alibaba (Qwen)



Alibaba's Qwen family offers strong multilingual models with excellent coding and reasoning capabilities. Qwen3.8 Max is a 2.4 trillion parameter model optimized for full-stack development, data analysis, and complex workflows.




## Setup



```bash
# 1. Get your API key from https://dashscope.console.aliyun.com/
export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=sk-...

# 2. Verify detection
arcana doctor

# 3. Run
arcana run "hello"
```




## Available Models



| Model | Context | Best For |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `qwen3.8-max` | ~1M | Flagship — full-stack dev, data analysis, Office workflows |
| `qwen3-max` | varies | Strong coding, reasoning, multilingual |




## Highlights



- **2.4T parameters** — Qwen3.8 Max is one of the largest open-weight models
- **Strong coding** — competitive with GPT-4 and Claude on code generation tasks
- **Multilingual** — excellent support for Chinese, English, and 29+ other languages
- **Long context** — up to 1M tokens for analyzing large codebases and documents
- **Cost-effective** — significantly cheaper than Western frontier models




## Config File



```json
{
  "provider": "alibaba",
  "model": "qwen3.8-max"
}
```




## Environment Variables



| Variable | Description |
| --- | --- |
| `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY` | Your Alibaba DashScope API key (required) |




## Via OpenRouter



You can also access Qwen models through OpenRouter with a single key:



```bash
export OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-...
# Then use qwen3.8-max directly — Arcana routes through OpenRouter
```




## Pricing Notes



Qwen models are very affordable. Approximate costs per 1M tokens via DashScope:



| Model | Input | Output |
| --- | --- | --- |
| qwen3.8-max | $0.17 | $0.51 |
| qwen3-max | $0.30 | $0.90 |




## Tips



- `qwen3.8-max` is excellent for full-stack development at a fraction of GPT-4 cost
- Qwen models have strong multilingual capabilities — great for international projects
- Use as a utility model for extraction, summarization, and data processing tasks
- Qwen models are OpenAI-compatible — they work with OpenAI client libraries
- Great choice for batch processing and high-volume workloads due to low pricing