# Qwen Usage Limits: What Each Limit Message Means and What Helps

> Qwen Chat is free, but its daily, per-model and per-feature caps are unpublished. The limit message names the cap you hit; paid plans live as of Oct. 31, 2026.

- URL: https://blog.laozhang.ai/en/posts/qwen-usage-limits
- Published: 2026-11-02
- Updated: 2026-11-02
- Author: LaoZhang AI Team (https://blog.laozhang.ai/en/about)
- Topic: Developer Tools & Agents
- Tags: Qwen, Qwen Chat, Qwen Studio, Qwen usage limits, Token Plan, Coding Plan, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio

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Qwen Chat is free, but it isn't unlimited. Alibaba's own wording is "free to use, open to all," yet as of November 2, 2026, no Qwen page publishes how many chats, images, or videos a free account gets per day. The app fills those numbers in from its server, so the two places that show your real allowance are the "{{number}} chats remaining today" counter and the Usage & Billing page with its **Reset time**. The one daily figure Qwen states is for video: signed-in users receive 40 credits a day.

What to do next depends on which limit you hit, and the message on screen tells you. A guest limit goes away when you sign in. A daily chat limit clears at the reset time. A model limit means Qwen keeps answering with a different model, and a feature limit (images, video, Deep Research, Thinking, Web Search) blocks only that feature. Per-minute messages are anti-abuse throttling that clears within a minute, not a ban. If you need more than the free allowance, Qwen now sells paid plans: Go, Plus, and Pro on the web, and Lite, Plus, and Pro in the iOS app "Qwen - Alibaba AI Assistant," where the subscriptions went live on October 31, 2026.

Using Qwen inside Claude Code, Cursor, or Qwen Code is a different product family with its own limits. That's Alibaba Cloud's Token Plan, the older Coding Plan if a slot is still available, or a pay-as-you-go API key, and none of them changes your Qwen Chat allowance.

## Which Qwen limit did you hit? Match the message

Each Qwen Chat limit message names what was counted, so the exact wording tells you whether to wait, sign in, switch models, or pay. In a check on November 2, 2026, the translation files of chat.qwen.ai's web build 0.3.28, downloaded without signing in, contained the English messages below. Where a message has a number in braces, the server inserts the value at run time, so the build shows that each limit exists but not its size.

| Message on screen | What was counted | Does waiting help? | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| "You've reached the guest chat limit. Log in to continue." (or "…Sign in or upgrade your membership to continue.") | Chats without an account | Not reliably; the message asks for a login | Sign in or create a free account |
| "The free quota has been used up. Please log in to experience more features of Qwen." | The signed-out free quota | Not reliably | Sign in |
| "You’ve used up your daily image generation quota. Log in to continue generating images." | Image generations today, signed out | Yes, it's a daily quota | Sign in to keep generating today |
| "Today's chat limit has been reached" or "You've reached today's usage limit. Subscribe to unlock additional quota and continue enjoying uninterrupted service." | Your account's daily allowance on its plan | Yes, until the reset time | Check **Reset time** on the Usage & Billing page, or move to a paid plan |
| "The usage limit for the current model has been reached. You can continue asking questions, and alternative models will be used to provide responses." | Uses of the one model you picked | Yes, for that model | Keep chatting on the fallback model, or pick another model yourself |
| "The usage limit for the Image Generation feature has been reached." (also Video Generation, Deep Research, Thinking, Web Search) | Uses of that one feature | Yes | Turn the feature off and keep chatting, or wait for the reset |
| "You have reached the daily usage limit. Please wait {{num}} hours before trying again." or the hourly version with {{num}} minutes | A time-window cap | Yes, the message states the wait | Come back after the stated hours or minutes |
| "Chat limited: too many requests per minute (60 per minute)." or "Your operation is too frequent, please try again later." | Requests per minute | Yes, about a minute | Stop resending, close duplicate tabs, pause auto-retry tools |
| "File upload limited: too many files uploaded per minute (20 per minute)." | Files uploaded per minute | Yes, about a minute | Upload in smaller batches |
| "Limit exceeded. Max 6 files (Images: 20MB, Videos: 200MB)." | Files and file size in one message | No | Split the files, or compress anything over 20MB (images) or 200MB (videos) |
| "Insufficient credits. Please upgrade your subscription to unlock more credits." | Credits, used for video generation | Yes, if your daily credits refresh | Wait for the next daily credits, or use a plan with monthly credits |

The per-minute and file limits are the only numbers written into the build itself: 60 chat requests a minute, 20 file uploads a minute, and six files per message with images up to 20MB and videos up to 200MB. They exist to stop rapid-fire sending, so hitting one usually means a browser extension, a script, or several tabs are sending for you. A free plan can also have a lower file count than paid plans. The build contains "Free plan includes {{fileNumber}} files," again with the number left to the server.

![Six Qwen Chat limit messages, what each one counts, and what clears it: sign in, wait for the reset time, switch model, turn a feature off, pause a minute, or wait for credits](https://blog.laozhang.ai/posts/en/qwen-usage-limits/img/qwen-limit-message-fixes.webp)

## How many chats, images and videos does free Qwen allow per day?

Qwen doesn't publish a daily number for free chats, image generations, image edits, or videos. As of November 2, 2026, neither qwen.ai, the Qwen Service Agreement, nor either official app listing gives a free-tier count. The web build only holds placeholders such as "{{number}} chats remaining today" and "{{number}} credits/day limit." Any fixed figure you see quoted for the free plan comes from a user's own account on a given day, not from Qwen.

You can see your own allowance, though. The remaining-chats counter is the in-chat signal of how many chats are left today. In the same build, the Usage & Billing page carries the labels **My quota**, **Reset time**, and **Week usage**, which show what's left and when it refills. Those screens exist only for signed-in accounts, and signed-in limits weren't part of the November 2, 2026 check, so these labels come from the code rather than a live account.

Video is the exception with a published number. A notice in the web build says: "Video generation now uses credits. Signed-in users receive 40 credits daily. Members also receive monthly credits and unlock exclusive video models and settings." An older string, "You already use up 5 video generation credits for today," is still in the code too, but the 40-credit notice belongs to the current credits system. How many credits one video costs isn't stated.

User reports are rough. A Reddit thread in r/Qwen_AI titled "Qwen 3.8 Max usage limits are BRUTAL. Four prompts." drew more than 610 votes around August 2026; it's one account's experience with the top model, and it fits the per-model limit described next. If you want images through an API rather than the app, [Qwen Image 2.1 Free API: ModelScope Token, Daily Cap, and Code](https://blog.laozhang.ai/en/posts/qwen-image-2-1-free-api) covers the free ModelScope route and its daily cap.

## Why did Qwen switch my model? The per-model limit

Qwen switched your model because the model you picked ran out of uses before your overall allowance did. Each model has its own counter. When it hits zero, Qwen shows "The usage limit for the current model has been reached. You can continue asking questions, and alternative models will be used to provide responses," or the shorter "The currently selected model has no remaining uses, and another model has been switched to."

So you aren't blocked. The next answer just comes from a different model, which can feel weaker if you had chosen the largest one. If the answer quality matters, choose the replacement yourself in the model menu rather than letting Qwen pick it, or wait for the reset time on the Usage & Billing page. The paid plan cards promise higher usage limits, but none of them prints a per-model count.

## Does signing in to Qwen Chat raise the limit?

Yes. Every guest message in the table points to signing in, and in one test an account was needed before the first answer. On November 2, 2026, chat.qwen.ai was opened in a fresh browser without signing in, from a US IP address. The page showed the model label "Qwen3.7-Plus" and an "Auto" mode button, and the model menu didn't open. Pressing Enter on a one-line prompt produced no answer. Instead, a login window appeared with the message "Log in to unlock features like video generation, get more generation credits, and sync your chat history."

That was one session, from one IP address, on one attempt. The web build also contains the guest-limit messages from the table above, so guest chatting does exist under conditions Qwen doesn't describe. Don't plan on it, though. A free account also brings the daily video credits and the remaining-chats counter.

## Qwen Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans: credits and prices

Qwen's paid plans add monthly credits and higher caps, but they don't publish chat counts. The prices you can verify come from the iOS app "Qwen - Alibaba AI Assistant," whose release notes for version 2.3.0 on October 31, 2026 say "Subscription Plans Lite, Plus, and Pro are live." The web uses the name Go for the lowest paid tier. In the web code the internal plan "lite" is displayed as "go," so Go and Lite are the same tier under two names.

| Tier (web / iOS) | Web plan card says | Monthly credits (iOS listing) | Singapore App Store | UK App Store |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free | "Access to Qwen models with standard usage limits" | None; daily video credits when signed in | Free | Free |
| Go / Lite | "Higher usage limits for everyday use" | 400, plus "Higher chat limits" and additional image generations | S$5.99 | £3.99 |
| Plus | "Expanded usage limits for frequent use" | 2,000, "Expanded quotas" | S$29.00 | £18.99 |
| Pro | "Professional usage limits designed for intensive use" | 10,500, "Priority access" and "the highest limits for video and image generation" | S$137.98 | £87.99 |

The prices come from the [Qwen - Alibaba AI Assistant listing on the Singapore App Store](https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/qwen-alibaba-ai-assistant/id6757738627) and its [UK App Store listing](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/qwen-alibaba-ai-assistant/id6757738627), as of November 2, 2026. The listings don't print a billing period next to each price, though the description calls the credits monthly. The paid app has no US App Store listing, so there's no official US price to quote.

Web prices aren't public either. On November 2, 2026, a request to the plan-list endpoint that chat.qwen.ai uses (`sg-member.qwen.com/api/member/product/query`) without a session returned `{"httpCode":401,"errorCode":"NOT_LOGIN","errorMsg":"User not logged in"}`. Plan prices load only after you sign in, and in some places you'll see "Sorry, subscriptions are currently not available in your region." instead.

Two official apps add to the confusion. The app linked from chat.qwen.ai is "Qwen Studio," which is free with no in-app purchases in its Singapore listing and isn't in the US App Store. The paid tiers are sold in the newer "Qwen - Alibaba AI Assistant" app from the same seller.

Before you pay, know the terms. The [Qwen Service Agreement](https://qwen.ai/termsservice), effective September 10, 2026, says unused allowance doesn't carry over to the next period and fees already paid are non-refundable. It also says each plan's allowance is "subject to the information displayed on the page at the time of purchase," so the purchase screen is the binding description. Separately, the web build says credits can't be exchanged for memberships, refunded, transferred, or withdrawn, with "2 years validity upon redemption."

## Token Plan vs Coding Plan vs API free quota: which one for coding tools?

If you want Qwen inside Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, or Qwen Code, start with Token Plan, because Alibaba Cloud now recommends it over the Coding Plan. A Qwen Chat plan doesn't give you an API key for these tools. The [Token Plan overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-overview), last updated October 21, 2026, says "Coding Plan Pro was a limited-quantity offering and is no longer available once sold out." Older Coding Plan pages from October 11 still say slots are restocked daily, so the Coding Plan may or may not be for sale when you check, and the two products don't migrate into each other.

![Qwen Chat Free, Go, Plus and Pro plans with their credits next to Alibaba Cloud's Token Plan, Coding Plan and API free quota for coding tools](https://blog.laozhang.ai/posts/en/qwen-usage-limits/img/qwen-chat-vs-alibaba-cloud-plans.webp)

| | Token Plan Personal | Coding Plan Pro | API free quota |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Billing unit | Credits, a monthly quota | Requests | Tokens, about 1,000,000 per eligible model |
| Price (International site) | Lite $6, Essential $10, Standard $18, Pro $68 a month (limited-time; regular $8 / $16 / $25 / $80) | $50 a month | Free for 90 days, then pay-as-you-go |
| What you get | 11,500 / 25,500 / 45,000 / 180,000 Credits a month; extra bundles of 20,000 Credits for $15, up to five | Up to 6,000 requests per 5 hours, 45,000 per week, 90,000 per month | One quota per model for new users; real-time calls only |
| Main limits | Singapore region only; interactive use only, no scripts or app backends; no trial; no unsubscribe option | May be sold out; Lite closed to new subscribers on March 20, 2026; no automated scripts | Since October 29, 2026, new users get no free quota on 209 older model IDs |
| Who it fits | Daily coding-agent work across Qwen and other models | Existing subscribers or anyone who finds a slot | Testing a model before paying |

The figures come from Alibaba Cloud's [Token Plan Personal overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-personal-overview) (October 21, 2026), the [Coding Plan page](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/coding-plan) (October 11, 2026), and the [Model Studio new-user free quota page](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/new-free-quota) (October 29, 2026). On the China site the same products cost 39, 79, 139, and 499 yuan a month for Token Plan Personal and 200 yuan for Coding Plan Pro.

Pick by how you work. Token Plan suits interactive work in a coding tool most days; choose the tier by how often you run out. A Coding Plan slot makes sense only if you already hold one or can still buy one, and one coding query uses about 5–10 requests when simple and 10–30 or more when complex. If you call Qwen from your own code, use a pay-as-you-go key, because both subscriptions forbid scripts and backends.

The free quota no longer covers older models for new accounts: qwen-plus, qwen-max, qwen3.6-plus, and the qwen-image-edit family are among the 209 removed, while newer models such as qwen3.8-max still show 1 million free tokens. Subscription keys never draw from it, and turning on "Free Quota Only" in the console makes calls stop instead of billing once it's gone. To compare Qwen's free API with other providers, see [Best Free AI API Provider: Pick by Limits, Data Use, and Region](https://blog.laozhang.ai/en/posts/free-ai-api-tiers-compared).

When a Token Plan runs dry, tools report `429 insufficient_quota: Your token-plan quota has been exhausted.` and the service pauses until the next subscription month or until you add a bundle. The Credits balance is on the Token Plan > My Subscriptions page of the Model Studio console. The weekly quota was removed on September 22, 2026, so the 5-hour and 7-day credit windows in Alibaba's August 4 launch post no longer apply.

## How many tokens do Token Plan credits buy? An estimate

Alibaba doesn't publish a credits-per-token table. Its FAQ says credits depend on the model, token count, thinking mode, and tool calls, and that pricier models such as qwen3.7-max use more credits for the same tokens. The only worked example is on the [Token Plan Team overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-team-overview). One qwen3.6-plus request with 8,349 input tokens cost 1.67 Credits, 40,794 cached tokens cost 0.82, and 573 output tokens cost 0.69, about 3.18 Credits in total.

Working those numbers through with the formula credits ÷ tokens × 1,000,000 gives the rates below. They are an estimate from a single request on a single model, not figures Alibaba states.

| Token type | Calculation | Credits per million tokens |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Input | 1.67 ÷ 8,349 × 1,000,000 | ≈ 200 |
| Cached input | 0.82 ÷ 40,794 × 1,000,000 | ≈ 20 |
| Output | 0.69 ÷ 573 × 1,000,000 | ≈ 1,200 |

qwen3.6-plus lists at $0.5 per million input tokens and $3 per million output tokens on the [QwenCloud model price list](https://docs.qwencloud.com/developer-guides/getting-started/model-prices.md) (International, up to 256K context). Both ratios work out to about 400 Credits per $1 of list-price usage. At that rate the Lite tier's 11,500 Credits are worth about $28.75 of qwen3.6-plus at list price, roughly 57 million input tokens or 9.6 million output tokens. Pro's 180,000 Credits come to about $450.

Treat the result as a rough guide, not a promise. At the $6 promotional price, $28.75 of list value is about 4.8 times what Lite costs, while Alibaba's own launch post claims only "up to 3x the usage compared to pay-as-you-go." The example also comes from the Team Edition page, qwen3.6-plus isn't in the Personal Edition model list, and thinking mode and tool calls add credits, so your real token count can be lower.

## Is Qwen Code still free? Not since April 15, 2026

No. The Qwen Code CLI is still open source, but its free Qwen OAuth tier has ended. According to the [QwenLM/qwen-code repository](https://github.com/QwenLM/qwen-code), the daily quota was cut from 1,000 to 100 requests on April 13, 2026, and the free tier was discontinued on April 15, 2026. The README at the time said to "switch to Alibaba Cloud Coding Plan, OpenRouter, Fireworks AI, or bring your own API key." The current `/auth` menu offers QwenCloud (Token Plan or an API key), Alibaba ModelStudio (Coding Plan, Token Plan, or an API key), third-party providers, and custom endpoints.

The "429 Free allocated quota exceeded" error dates from that period. In February 2026 a project collaborator explained that the free quota was meant for Qwen Code community use, not large-scale use through third-party tools. If a tool still shows it, the tool is pointed at the old OAuth login; switch it to one of the current options.

## Qwen usage limits: other questions

**Are qwen35.com and "Q-Chat" prices Qwen's official plans?**
No. qwen35.com sells "Q-Chat" plans such as Lite at $5.99 for 300 credits, and the site itself says it is an independent product not affiliated with Alibaba Cloud or the Qwen team. try-qwen-ai.com also calls itself an unofficial site. As of November 2, 2026, the official prices are the App Store tiers above and the web prices shown after you sign in.

**Is "Qwen Go" the same as the Go plan?**
No. News and X posts from October 2026 about "Qwen Go" describe a planned personal-agent product. The Go plan is the lowest paid tier on chat.qwen.ai, called Lite in the iOS app.

**Is Qwen Chat available in every country?**
No. The qwen.ai site ships the message "Unfortunately, Qwen is only available in certain regions right now," and paid plans can be unavailable even where chat works. Qwen doesn't publish a country list, so the message you see in your own browser is the only answer for your location.

## Sources

External pages this guide links to, in the order they appear. Last updated 2026-11-02.

- [Qwen - Alibaba AI Assistant listing on the Singapore App Store](https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/qwen-alibaba-ai-assistant/id6757738627) (apps.apple.com)
- [UK App Store listing](https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/qwen-alibaba-ai-assistant/id6757738627) (apps.apple.com)
- [Qwen Service Agreement](https://qwen.ai/termsservice) (qwen.ai)
- [Token Plan overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-overview) (alibabacloud.com)
- [Token Plan Personal overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-personal-overview) (alibabacloud.com)
- [Coding Plan page](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/coding-plan) (alibabacloud.com)
- [Model Studio new-user free quota page](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/new-free-quota) (alibabacloud.com)
- [Token Plan Team overview](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/token-plan-team-overview) (alibabacloud.com)
- [QwenCloud model price list](https://docs.qwencloud.com/developer-guides/getting-started/model-prices.md) (docs.qwencloud.com)
- [QwenLM/qwen-code repository](https://github.com/QwenLM/qwen-code) (github.com)