stack/docs/providers/qwen.md

summary, read_when, title

summary	read_when	title
Use Qwen Cloud through its OpenClaw plugin	You want to use Qwen with OpenClaw You have an Alibaba Cloud Token Plan subscription	Qwen

Qwen Cloud is an official external OpenClaw provider plugin with canonical id qwen. It targets Qwen Cloud / Alibaba DashScope Standard and Coding Plan endpoints, exposes Token Plan as qwen-token-plan, keeps modelstudio as a compatibility alias, and independently owns Alibaba's documented bailian-token-plan custom-provider id.

Property	Value
Provider	qwen
Token Plan provider	qwen-token-plan
Preferred env var	QWEN_API_KEY
Token Plan env var	QWEN_TOKEN_PLAN_API_KEY
Also accepted (compat)	MODELSTUDIO_API_KEY, DASHSCOPE_API_KEY
API style	OpenAI-compatible

`qwen3.7-plus` and `qwen3.6-plus` work with Coding Plan and Standard endpoints. For `qwen3.8-max` or `qwen3.8-flash`, use **Standard (pay-as-you-go)** or **Token Plan**. The older Coding Plan does not include these models. `qwen3.7-max` and `qwen3.6-flash` also require Standard or Token Plan.

Install plugin

qwen ships as an official external plugin, not bundled with core. Install it and restart Gateway:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/qwen-provider
openclaw gateway restart

Getting started

Choose your plan type and follow the setup steps.

**Best for:** subscription-based access through the Qwen Coding Plan.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get your API key">
    Create or copy an API key from [home.qwencloud.com/api-keys](https://home.qwencloud.com/api-keys).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Run onboarding">
    For the **Global** endpoint:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-api-key
    ```

    For the **China** endpoint:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-api-key-cn
    ```
  </Step>
  <Step title="Set a default model">
    ```json5
    {
      agents: {
        defaults: {
          model: { primary: "qwen/qwen3.5-plus" },
        },
      },
    }
    ```
  </Step>
  <Step title="Verify the model is available">
    ```bash
    openclaw models list --provider qwen
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
Legacy `modelstudio-*` auth-choice ids and `modelstudio/...` model refs still
work as compatibility aliases, but new setup flows should prefer the canonical
`qwen-*` auth-choice ids and `qwen/...` model refs. If you define an exact
custom `models.providers.modelstudio` entry with another `api` value, that
custom provider owns `modelstudio/...` refs instead of the Qwen compatibility
alias.
</Note>

**Best for:** pay-as-you-go access through the Standard Model Studio endpoint, including `qwen3.8-max` and `qwen3.8-flash`, which are not available on the older Coding Plan.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get your API key">
    Create or copy an API key from [home.qwencloud.com/api-keys](https://home.qwencloud.com/api-keys).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Run onboarding">
    For the **Global** endpoint:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-standard-api-key
    ```

    For the **China** endpoint:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-standard-api-key-cn
    ```
  </Step>
  <Step title="Set a default model">
    ```json5
    {
      agents: {
        defaults: {
          model: { primary: "qwen/qwen3.5-plus" },
        },
      },
    }
    ```
  </Step>
  <Step title="Verify the model is available">
    ```bash
    openclaw models list --provider qwen
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
Legacy `modelstudio-*` auth-choice ids and `modelstudio/...` model refs still
work as compatibility aliases, but new setup flows should prefer the canonical
`qwen-*` auth-choice ids and `qwen/...` model refs. If you define an exact
custom `models.providers.modelstudio` entry with another `api` value, that
custom provider owns `modelstudio/...` refs instead of the Qwen compatibility
alias.
</Note>

**Best for:** credit-based team subscription access to Qwen and supported third-party models through Alibaba Cloud Model Studio.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Get your dedicated key">
    Assign a Token Plan seat and create its dedicated `sk-sp-...` key. Token Plan, Coding Plan, and pay-as-you-go keys are not interchangeable. See the [Global Token Plan overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-overview) or [China Token Plan overview](https://help.aliyun.com/zh/model-studio/token-plan-overview).
  </Step>
  <Step title="Run onboarding">
    For the **Global / International** endpoint in Singapore:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-token-plan
    ```

    For the **China** endpoint in Beijing:

    ```bash
    openclaw onboard --auth-choice qwen-token-plan-cn
    ```
  </Step>
  <Step title="Verify the provider">
    ```bash
    openclaw models list --provider qwen-token-plan
    openclaw agent --model qwen-token-plan/qwen3.7-plus --message "Reply with: token plan ready"
    ```
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Note>
Alibaba's OpenClaw guide uses `bailian-token-plan` for a manual custom
provider. The plugin registers that id as a compatibility owner, but new
configs should use `qwen-token-plan`. An exact custom
`models.providers.bailian-token-plan` entry keeps ownership of its configured
transport and catalog; it is never merged into the canonical OpenAI catalog.
</Note>

<Warning>
Use Token Plan only for interactive OpenClaw sessions. Do not select it for
cron jobs, unattended scripts, or application backends. Alibaba states that
non-interactive use can suspend the subscription or revoke its API key.
</Warning>

Retired Qwen Portal authentication

The qwen-oauth Portal provider and its legacy OAuth flow have been removed. Portal tokens are not interchangeable with Qwen Cloud or DashScope API keys. Using the current Qwen plugin requires fresh API-key authentication for the chosen endpoint and updated model configuration. Follow Install plugin and Getting started; existing Portal credentials are not converted automatically.

Plan types and endpoints

Plan	Region	Auth choice	Endpoint
Coding Plan (subscription)	China	qwen-api-key-cn	coding.dashscope.aliyuncs.com/v1
Coding Plan (subscription)	Global	qwen-api-key	coding-intl.dashscope.aliyuncs.com/v1
Standard (pay-as-you-go)	China	qwen-standard-api-key-cn	dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1
Standard (pay-as-you-go)	Global	qwen-standard-api-key	dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1
Token Plan (Team Edition)	China	qwen-token-plan-cn	token-plan.cn-beijing.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1
Token Plan (Team Edition)	Global	qwen-token-plan	token-plan.ap-southeast-1.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1

The provider auto-selects the endpoint based on your auth choice. Canonical choices use the qwen-* family; modelstudio-* remains compatibility-only. Override with a custom baseUrl in config.

**Manage keys:** [home.qwencloud.com/api-keys](https://home.qwencloud.com/api-keys) | **Docs:** [docs.qwencloud.com](https://docs.qwencloud.com/developer-guides/getting-started/introduction)

Built-in catalog

Setup keeps connection settings and model aliases, including modelstudio aliases, without copying generated catalog rows into your config. Explicit models.mode: "replace" keeps catalog seeding enabled; custom model rows stay intact.

OpenClaw discovers models from the configured endpoint's authenticated /models API. The plugin keeps the following seed metadata for offline discovery and for endpoints that return only model IDs. Coding Plan configs omit models that are not included in that plan; a Standard model listing does not establish Token Plan or Coding Plan access.

Model ref	Input	Context	Notes
qwen/qwen3.5-plus	text, image	1,000,000	Default model
qwen/qwen3.6-flash	text, image	1,000,000	Standard endpoints only
qwen/qwen3.6-plus	text, image	1,000,000	Coding Plan + Standard
qwen/qwen3.7-max	text	1,000,000	Standard endpoints only
qwen/qwen3.7-plus	text, image	1,000,000	Coding Plan + Standard
qwen/qwen3.8-max	text, image	1,000,000	Standard endpoints only
qwen/qwen3.8-flash	text, image	1,000,000	Standard endpoints only
qwen/qwen3-max-2026-01-23	text	262,144	Qwen Max line
qwen/qwen3-coder-next	text	262,144	Coding
qwen/qwen3-coder-plus	text	1,000,000	Coding
qwen/MiniMax-M2.5	text	1,000,000	Reasoning enabled
qwen/glm-5	text	202,752	GLM
qwen/glm-4.7	text	202,752	GLM
qwen/kimi-k2.5	text, image	262,144	Moonshot AI via Alibaba

Availability can still vary by endpoint and billing plan even when a model is present in the seed catalog. Additional chat models returned by the endpoint can appear without a plugin update. For locally hosted models, use the [Ollama](/providers/ollama) or [LM Studio](/providers/lmstudio) discovery flow.

Token Plan catalog

Token Plan uses a separate exact-string allowlist. The built-in catalog shows Alibaba's currently recommended plan models and keeps the newer Qwen3-Coder compatibility tier selectable but hidden. Other allowlisted model IDs remain available as custom model refs. Image-generation-only plan models are not included here because they use different APIs.

Model ref	Input	Context	Picker status
qwen-token-plan/qwen3.7-plus	text, image	1,000,000	visible
qwen-token-plan/qwen3.8-max	text, image	1,000,000	visible
qwen-token-plan/qwen3.8-flash	text, image	1,000,000	visible
qwen-token-plan/qwen3.6-plus	text, image	1,000,000	visible
qwen-token-plan/qwen3-coder-next	text	262,144	hidden
qwen-token-plan/kimi-k2.5	text, image	262,144	visible
qwen-token-plan/glm-5	text	202,752	visible
qwen-token-plan/MiniMax-M2.5	text	196,608	visible

Thinking controls

qwen3.8-max and qwen3.8-flash support off, low, medium, and xhigh thinking, with xhigh as the default. minimal maps to low; high and max map to xhigh. This applies to Standard and Token Plan. Both models support 131,072 output tokens. OpenClaw preserves returned reasoning in its separate reasoning_content replay field during tool use, rather than placing it in visible answer text.

An explicit thinking_budget in request parameters takes precedence over the mapped reasoning_effort: Qwen rejects requests containing both. See the Qwen thinking reference.

qwen3.7-max, qwen3.7-plus, qwen3.6-flash, and qwen3.6-plus are reasoning-enabled in the built-in catalog. For reasoning models on the qwen family, the provider maps OpenClaw thinking levels to DashScope's top-level enable_thinking request flag: disabled thinking sends enable_thinking: false, any other level sends enable_thinking: true. Custom models can opt into an alternate chat-template thinking payload by setting compat.thinkingFormat: "qwen-chat-template" on the model entry.

Token Plan models are also marked reasoning-capable. kimi-k2.7-code and MiniMax-M2.5 are thinking-only, so OpenClaw keeps thinking enabled even when the session requests /think off. DeepSeek V4 maps minimal through high to the service's high effort and maps xhigh or max to max. GLM 5.2 accepts the full minimal through max range; GLM 5.1 and GLM 5 accept through xhigh, and all three default to high. Other hybrid models follow the requested on/off state.

Multimodal add-ons

The qwen plugin exposes multimodal capabilities on the Standard DashScope endpoints only, not the Coding Plan endpoints:

• Image and video understanding via qwen3.6-plus
• Wan video generation via wan2.6-t2v (default), wan2.6-i2v, wan2.6-r2v, wan2.6-r2v-flash, wan2.7-r2v

Media understanding is auto-resolved from the configured Qwen auth; no extra config is needed. Make sure you are on a Standard (pay-as-you-go) endpoint for media understanding to work.

To make Qwen the default video provider:

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      mediaModels: { video: { primary: "qwen/wan2.6-t2v" } },
    },
  },
}

Each Wan model advertises only its matching runtime mode:

Mode	Models	Reference limits	Max duration	Supported controls
Text-to-video	wan2.6-t2v	n/a	15 s	size, aspectRatio, resolution, audio, watermark
Image-to-video	wan2.6-i2v	1 image	15 s	resolution, audio, watermark
Reference-to-video (Wan 2.6)	wan2.6-r2v, wan2.6-r2v-flash	5 total images/videos; up to 3 videos	10 s	size, aspectRatio, resolution, audio, watermark
Reference-to-video (Wan 2.7)	wan2.7-r2v	5 total images/videos; up to 3 videos	10 s	size, aspectRatio, resolution, watermark; audio is always on

Wan 2.6 text/reference models translate resolution plus aspectRatio to the documented exact size. Wan 2.6 image-to-video sends the resolution tier and uses the input image's aspect ratio. Wan 2.7 reference-to-video sends media, resolution, and ratio and always generates audio.

Reference image/video inputs require remote http(s) URLs; local file paths are rejected up front because the DashScope video endpoint does not accept uploaded local buffers for those references.

See [Video generation](/tools/video-generation) for shared tool parameters, provider selection, and failover behavior.

Advanced configuration

`qwen3.7-plus` and `qwen3.6-plus` are available on Coding Plan and Standard endpoints. For `qwen3.8-max`, `qwen3.8-flash`, `qwen3.7-max`, or `qwen3.6-flash`, use Standard or Token Plan. The Standard (pay-as-you-go) endpoints are:

- China: `dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`
- Global: `dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`

OpenClaw omits these models from Coding Plan catalogs. If a Coding Plan
endpoint returns an "unsupported model" error, switch to the matching
Standard or Token Plan endpoint and its dedicated key.

OpenClaw maps the configured Qwen region to the matching DashScope AIGC host before submitting a video job:

- Global/Intl: `https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com`
- China: `https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com`

A normal `models.providers.qwen.baseUrl` pointing at either the Coding Plan
or Standard Qwen hosts still routes video generation to the matching
regional DashScope video endpoint.

Native Qwen endpoints advertise streaming usage compatibility on the shared `openai-completions` transport, so DashScope-compatible custom provider ids targeting the same native hosts inherit the same behavior without requiring the built-in `qwen` provider id specifically. This applies to Coding Plan, Standard, and Token Plan endpoints:

- `https://coding.dashscope.aliyuncs.com/v1`
- `https://coding-intl.dashscope.aliyuncs.com/v1`
- `https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`
- `https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`
- `https://token-plan.ap-southeast-1.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`
- `https://token-plan.cn-beijing.maas.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`

The `qwen` plugin is being positioned as the vendor home for the full Qwen Cloud surface, not just coding/text models.

- **Text/chat models:** available through the plugin
- **Tool calling, structured output, thinking:** inherited from the OpenAI-compatible transport
- **Image generation:** planned at the provider-plugin layer
- **Image/video understanding:** available through the plugin on the Standard endpoint
- **Speech/audio:** planned at the provider-plugin layer
- **Memory embeddings/reranking:** planned through the embedding adapter surface
- **Video generation:** available through the plugin through the shared video-generation capability

If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `QWEN_API_KEY` or `QWEN_TOKEN_PLAN_API_KEY` is available to that process (for example, in `~/.openclaw/.env` or via `env.shellEnv`).

Related

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior. Shared video tool parameters and provider selection. Bundled Wan video generation provider on the same DashScope platform. General troubleshooting and FAQ.