--- title: Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) Provider sidebar_label: Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) description: Configure Alibaba Cloud's DashScope API for Qwen chat, reasoning, vision, and embedding models in Promptfoo. keywords: [alibaba, qwen, qwen3, dashscope, deepseek, qwq, reasoning, vision, multimodal, llm] --- # Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) [Alibaba Cloud's DashScope API](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/getting-started/models) provides OpenAI-compatible access to Qwen language models. Use [OpenAI provider options](/docs/providers/openai/) supported by your chosen model. ## Setup To use Alibaba Cloud's API, set the `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY` environment variable or specify via `apiKey` in the configuration file: ```sh export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY=your_api_key_here ``` ## Configuration The provider uses [OpenAI provider options](/docs/providers/openai); support varies by model. Example: ```yaml providers: - alibaba:qwen3.8-max # Simple usage - id: alibaba:qwen3.7-plus # Aliases: alicloud:, aliyun:, dashscope: config: temperature: 0.7 apiKey: your_api_key_here # Alternative to DASHSCOPE_API_KEY environment variable apiBaseUrl: https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1 # Optional: Override default API base URL ``` :::note The equivalent provider prefixes are `alicloud:`, `aliyun:`, and `dashscope:`. For new configurations, Alibaba recommends `qwen3.7-plus` for balanced use, `qwen3.8-flash` for lower cost, or `qwen3.8-max` for stronger reasoning. Check the [model catalog for your region](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/text-generation-model); model availability differs by region. If you're using the Alibaba Cloud Beijing region console, switch the base URL to `https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1` instead of the international endpoint. ::: ## Supported Models The built-in Alibaba provider implements OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions and text embeddings. The catalog below also lists separate [realtime](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/omni), [speech recognition](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-asr-realtime-interaction-process), and [image generation](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-image-generation-and-editing-api-reference) services. Listing a model here does not add those endpoints to this provider. Choose a model supported by your selected endpoint and region. ### Qwen 3 Flagship - `qwen3.8-max` / `qwen3.8-max-0902` - Current flagship with text, image, and video input and a 1M-token context window - `qwen3.8-flash` - Faster Qwen3.8 model with a 1M-token context window - `qwen3.7-plus` / `qwen3.7-plus-2026-05-26` - General-purpose model with thinking, vision, and tool calling - `qwen3.7-flash` / `qwen3.7-flash-2026-07-15` - Lower-cost Qwen3.7 model - `qwen3.7-max` / `qwen3.7-max-2026-06-08` - Previous flagship - `qwen3.6-plus` / `qwen3.6-flash` and `qwen3.5-plus` / `qwen3.5-flash` - Previous model families - `qwen3-max` - Supports reasoning and tool calling - `qwen3-max-preview` - Preview version with thinking mode support - `qwen3-max-2025-09-23` - September 2025 snapshot - `qwen-max` - 32K context (30,720 in, 8,192 out) - `qwen-max-latest` - Always updated to latest version - `qwen-max-2025-01-25` - January 2025 snapshot - `qwen-plus` / `qwen-plus-latest` - 128K-1M context (thinking & non-thinking modes) - `qwen-plus-2025-09-11`, `qwen-plus-2025-07-28`, `qwen-plus-2025-07-14`, `qwen-plus-2025-04-28`, `qwen-plus-2025-01-25` - Dated snapshots - `qwen-flash` / `qwen-flash-2025-07-28` - Latency-optimized general model - `qwen-turbo` / `qwen-turbo-latest` / `qwen-turbo-2025-04-28` / `qwen-turbo-2024-11-01` - Earlier low-latency model; see `qwen-flash` - `qwen-long-latest` / `qwen-long-2025-01-25` - 10M context for long-text analysis, summarization, and extraction ### Qwen 3 Omni & Realtime - `qwen3.8-omni-flash` - Text output from text, image, audio, and video input through Chat Completions; use the separate realtime API for `qwen3.8-omni-flash-realtime` - `qwen3-omni-flash` / `qwen3-omni-flash-2025-09-15` - Supports speech and vision in thinking and non-thinking modes - `qwen3-omni-flash-realtime` / `qwen3-omni-flash-realtime-2025-09-15` - Streaming realtime with audio stream input and VAD - `qwen3-omni-30b-a3b-captioner` - Dedicated audio captioning model (speech, ambient sounds, music) - `qwen2.5-omni-7b` - Qwen2.5-based multimodal model with text, image, speech, and video inputs ### Reasoning & Research - `qwq-plus` - Alibaba's reasoning model (commercial) - `qwq-32b` - Open-source QwQ reasoning model trained on Qwen2.5 - `qwq-32b-preview` - Experimental QwQ research model (2024) - `qwen-deep-research` - Long-form research assistant with web search - `qvq-max` / `qvq-max-latest` / `qvq-max-2025-03-25` - Visual reasoning models (commercial) - `qvq-72b-preview` - Experimental visual reasoning research model - **DeepSeek models** (hosted by Alibaba Cloud): - `deepseek-v4.1-flash` / `deepseek-v4-pro-0813` - Current hosted Flash and Pro models; these IDs differ from the direct DeepSeek API - `deepseek-v3.2-exp` / `deepseek-v3.1` / `deepseek-v3` - DeepSeek V3 models - `deepseek-r1` / `deepseek-r1-0528` - DeepSeek reasoning models - `deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-{1.5b,7b,14b,32b}` - Distilled on Qwen2.5 - `deepseek-r1-distill-llama-{8b,70b}` - Distilled on Llama ### Vision & Multimodal **Commercial:** - `qwen3-vl-plus` / `qwen3-vl-plus-2025-09-23` - High-res image support with long context (thinking & non-thinking modes) - `qwen3-vl-flash` / `qwen3-vl-flash-2025-10-15` - Fast vision model with thinking mode support - `qwen-vl-max` - 7.5K context, 1,280 tokens/image - `qwen-vl-plus` - High-res image support - `qwen-vl-ocr` - OCR-optimized for documents, tables, handwriting (30+ languages) **Open-source:** - `qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-thinking` / `qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-instruct` - 235B parameter Qwen3-VL - `qwen3-vl-32b-thinking` / `qwen3-vl-32b-instruct` - 32B parameter Qwen3-VL - `qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-thinking` / `qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct` - 30B parameter Qwen3-VL - `qwen3-vl-8b-thinking` / `qwen3-vl-8b-instruct` - 8B parameter Qwen3-VL - `qwen2.5-vl-{72b,7b,3b}-instruct` - Qwen 2.5 VL series ### Audio & Speech - `qwen3-asr-flash` / `qwen3-asr-flash-2025-09-08` - Multilingual speech recognition (11 languages, Chinese dialects) - `qwen3-asr-flash-realtime` / `qwen3-asr-flash-realtime-2025-10-27` - Real-time speech recognition with automatic language detection - `qwen3-omni-flash-realtime` - Supports speech streaming with VAD ### Coding & Math **Commercial:** - `qwen3-coder-plus` / `qwen3-coder-plus-2025-09-23` / `qwen3-coder-plus-2025-07-22` - Coding agents with tool calling - `qwen3-coder-flash` / `qwen3-coder-flash-2025-07-28` - Fast code generation - `qwen-math-plus` / `qwen-math-plus-latest` / `qwen-math-plus-2024-09-19` / `qwen-math-plus-2024-08-16` - Math problem solving - `qwen-math-turbo` / `qwen-math-turbo-latest` / `qwen-math-turbo-2024-09-19` - Fast math reasoning - `qwen-mt-{plus,turbo}` - Machine translation (92 languages) - `qwen-doc-turbo` - Document mining and structured extraction **Open-source:** - `qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct` / `qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct` - Open-source Qwen3 coder models - `qwen2.5-math-{72b,7b,1.5b}-instruct` - Math-focused models with CoT/PoT/TIR reasoning ### Qwen 2.5 Series All support 131K context (129,024 in, 8,192 out) - `qwen2.5-{72b,32b,14b,7b}-instruct` - `qwen2.5-{7b,14b}-instruct-1m` ### Qwen 2 Series - `qwen2-72b-instruct` - 131K context - `qwen2-57b-a14b-instruct` - 65K context - `qwen2-7b-instruct` - 131K context ### Qwen 1.5 Series 8K context (6K in, 2K out) - `qwen1.5-{110b,72b,32b,14b,7b}-chat` ### Qwen 3 Open-source Models Open-source Qwen3 models with thinking mode support: - `qwen3-next-80b-a3b-thinking` / `qwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct` - Next-gen 80B (September 2025) - `qwen3-235b-a22b-thinking-2507` / `qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507` - 235B July 2025 versions - `qwen3-30b-a3b-thinking-2507` / `qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507` - 30B July 2025 versions - `qwen3-235b-a22b` - 235B with dual-mode support (thinking/non-thinking) - `qwen3-32b` - 32B dual-mode model - `qwen3-30b-a3b` - 30B dual-mode model - `qwen3-14b`, `qwen3-8b`, `qwen3-4b` - Smaller dual-mode models - `qwen3-1.7b`, `qwen3-0.6b` - Edge/mobile models ### Third-party Models **Kimi (Moonshot AI):** - `kimi-k3` - Current Kimi model - `kimi-k2.6` - Previous Kimi model with a 256K context window - `moonshot-kimi-k2-instruct` - First open-source trillion-parameter MoE model in China (activates 32B parameters) **Z.AI (GLM):** `ZHIPU/GLM-5.3` and `glm-5.2`. Check the [regional model catalog](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/models) for access and endpoint requirements. ### Embeddings Use `alibaba:embedding:` for embeddings. The `alibaba:` shorthand sends chat requests. - `text-embedding-v3` - 1,024d vectors, 8,192 token limit, 50+ languages - `text-embedding-v4` - Latest Qwen3-Embedding with flexible dimensions (64-2048d), 100+ languages - `qwen3.7-text-embedding` - Newer Qwen3.7 text embeddings; availability depends on the region ```yaml defaultTest: options: provider: embedding: id: alibaba:embedding:text-embedding-v4 ``` ### Image Generation The `alibaba` provider does not call image-generation endpoints. To use models such as `qwen-image-plus`, configure the [HTTP provider](/docs/providers/http/) for [Alibaba's image API](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-image-api). See the [DashScope model catalog](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/getting-started/models) for availability. ## Additional Configuration Put DashScope-specific request fields under `config.passthrough`. For example, `enable_thinking` controls thinking mode on Qwen3.8 and Qwen3.7 chat models: ```yaml providers: - id: alibaba:qwen3.8-max config: passthrough: enable_thinking: true ``` Standard [OpenAI parameters](/docs/providers/openai/#configuring-parameters) (temperature, max_tokens) are supported. Base URL: `https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1` (or `https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1` for the Beijing region). For API usage details, see [Alibaba Cloud documentation](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/getting-started/models). ## See Also - [OpenAI Provider](/docs/providers/openai) ## Reference - [Alibaba Cloud DashScope documentation](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/getting-started/models)