---
summary: "Use Qwen Cloud via OpenClaw's bundled qwen provider"
read_when:
  - You want to use Qwen with OpenClaw
  - You previously used Qwen OAuth
title: "Qwen"
---

OpenClaw now treats Qwen as a first-class bundled provider with canonical id
`qwen`. The bundled provider targets the Qwen Cloud / Alibaba DashScope and
Coding Plan endpoints, keeps legacy `modelstudio` ids working as a compatibility
alias, and also exposes the Qwen Portal token flow as provider `qwen-oauth`.

- Provider: `qwen`
- Portal provider: [`qwen-oauth`](/providers/qwen-oauth)
- Preferred env var: `QWEN_API_KEY`
- Also accepted for compatibility: `MODELSTUDIO_API_KEY`, `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY`
- API style: OpenAI-compatible

<Tip>
If you want `qwen3.6-plus`, prefer the **Standard (pay-as-you-go)** endpoint.
Coding Plan support can lag behind the public catalog.
</Tip>

## Getting started

Choose your plan type and follow the setup steps.

<Tabs>
  <Tab title="Coding Plan (subscription)">
    **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>

  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Standard (pay-as-you-go)">
    **Best for:** pay-as-you-go access through the Standard Model Studio endpoint, including models like `qwen3.6-plus` that may not be available on the 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>

  </Tab>

  <Tab title="Qwen OAuth / Portal">
    **Best for:** a Qwen Portal token against `https://portal.qwen.ai/v1`.

    See [Qwen OAuth / Portal](/providers/qwen-oauth) for the dedicated provider
    page and migration notes.

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

    <Note>
    `qwen-oauth` uses the same `QWEN_API_KEY` env var name as the DashScope
    provider, but stores auth under the `qwen-oauth` provider id when configured
    through OpenClaw onboarding.
    </Note>

  </Tab>
</Tabs>

## Plan types and endpoints

| Plan                       | Region | Auth choice                | Endpoint                                         |
| -------------------------- | ------ | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| 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` |
| 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`          |
| Qwen Portal                | Global | `qwen-oauth`               | `portal.qwen.ai/v1`                              |

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

<Tip>
**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)
</Tip>

## Built-in catalog

OpenClaw currently ships this bundled Qwen catalog. The configured catalog is
endpoint-aware: Coding Plan configs omit models that are only known to work on
the Standard endpoint.

| Model ref                   | Input       | Context   | Notes                                              |
| --------------------------- | ----------- | --------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| `qwen/qwen3.5-plus`         | text, image | 1,000,000 | Default model                                      |
| `qwen/qwen3.6-plus`         | text, image | 1,000,000 | Prefer Standard endpoints when you need this model |
| `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                            |
| `qwen-oauth/qwen3.5-plus`   | text, image | 1,000,000 | Qwen Portal default                                |

<Note>
Availability can still vary by endpoint and billing plan even when a model is
present in the bundled catalog.
</Note>

## Thinking Controls

For reasoning-enabled Qwen Cloud models, the bundled provider maps OpenClaw
thinking levels to DashScope's top-level `enable_thinking` request flag. Disabled
thinking sends `enable_thinking: false`; other thinking levels send
`enable_thinking: true`.

## Multimodal add-ons

The `qwen` plugin also exposes multimodal capabilities on the **Standard**
DashScope endpoints (not the Coding Plan endpoints):

- **Video understanding** via `qwen-vl-max-latest`
- **Wan video generation** via `wan2.6-t2v` (default), `wan2.6-i2v`, `wan2.6-r2v`, `wan2.6-r2v-flash`, `wan2.7-r2v`

To use Qwen as the default video provider:

```json5
{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      videoGenerationModel: { primary: "qwen/wan2.6-t2v" },
    },
  },
}
```

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

## Advanced configuration

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Image and video understanding">
    The bundled Qwen plugin registers media understanding for images and video
    on the **Standard** DashScope endpoints (not the Coding Plan endpoints).

    | Property      | Value                 |
    | ------------- | --------------------- |
    | Model         | `qwen-vl-max-latest`  |
    | Supported input | Images, video       |

    Media understanding is auto-resolved from the configured Qwen auth — no
    additional config is needed. Ensure you are using a Standard (pay-as-you-go)
    endpoint for media understanding support.

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Qwen 3.6 Plus availability">
    `qwen3.6-plus` is available on the Standard (pay-as-you-go) Model Studio
    endpoints:

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

    If the Coding Plan endpoints return an "unsupported model" error for
    `qwen3.6-plus`, switch to Standard (pay-as-you-go) instead of the Coding Plan
    endpoint/key pair.

    OpenClaw's bundled Qwen catalog does not advertise `qwen3.6-plus` on Coding
    Plan endpoints, but explicitly configured `qwen/qwen3.6-plus` entries under
    `models.providers.qwen.models` are honored on Coding Plan baseUrls so you
    can opt that model in if Aliyun enables it on your subscription. The
    upstream API still decides whether the call succeeds.

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Capability plan">
    The `qwen` plugin is being positioned as the vendor home for the full Qwen
    Cloud surface, not just coding/text models.

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

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Video generation details">
    For video generation, OpenClaw maps the configured Qwen region to the matching
    DashScope AIGC host before submitting the job:

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

    That means a normal `models.providers.qwen.baseUrl` pointing at either the
    Coding Plan or Standard Qwen hosts still keeps video generation on the correct
    regional DashScope video endpoint.

    Current bundled Qwen video-generation limits:

    - Up to **1** output video per request
    - Up to **1** input image
    - Up to **4** input videos
    - Up to **10 seconds** duration
    - Supports `size`, `aspectRatio`, `resolution`, `audio`, and `watermark`
    - Reference image/video mode currently requires **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.

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Streaming usage compatibility">
    Native Model Studio endpoints advertise streaming usage compatibility on the
    shared `openai-completions` transport. OpenClaw keys that off endpoint
    capabilities now, so DashScope-compatible custom provider ids targeting the
    same native hosts inherit the same streaming-usage behavior instead of
    requiring the built-in `qwen` provider id specifically.

    Native-streaming usage compatibility applies to both the Coding Plan hosts and
    the Standard DashScope-compatible hosts:

    - `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`

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Multimodal endpoint regions">
    Multimodal surfaces (video understanding and Wan video generation) use the
    **Standard** DashScope endpoints, not the Coding Plan endpoints:

    - Global/Intl Standard base URL: `https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`
    - China Standard base URL: `https://dashscope.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1`

  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Environment and daemon setup">
    If the Gateway runs as a daemon (launchd/systemd), make sure `QWEN_API_KEY` is
    available to that process (for example, in `~/.openclaw/.env` or via
    `env.shellEnv`).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Model selection" href="/concepts/model-providers" icon="layers">
    Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Video generation" href="/tools/video-generation" icon="video">
    Shared video tool parameters and provider selection.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Alibaba (ModelStudio)" href="/providers/alibaba" icon="cloud">
    Legacy ModelStudio provider and migration notes.
  </Card>
  <Card title="Troubleshooting" href="/help/troubleshooting" icon="wrench">
    General troubleshooting and FAQ.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>
