Qwen 4: what we know about Max, Plus, Flash and 27B, and the release date
TextAnnounced

Qwen 4: what we know about Max, Plus, Flash and 27B, and the release date

Qwen 4 is in training, and Alibaba says it is coming “very soon”. Here is what the company has confirmed, and what is still unknown.

What’s known so far

  • Announced 22 September 2026 at the Apsara Conference in Hangzhou.
  • Four models: Qwen 4 Max, Qwen 4 Plus, Qwen 4 Flash and the compact Qwen 4 27B.
  • A new architecture you can already try: Alibaba calls Qwen3.8-Flash-Next an early preview of the architecture behind Qwen 4.
  • Next on the roadmap: Qwen 4.5 and Qwen 5 at 5–10 trillion parameters.
  • Release date, pricing, context length and benchmarks have not been published.

At a glance

DetailValue
ModelsQwen 4 Max · Qwen 4 Plus · Qwen 4 Flash · Qwen 4 27B
DeveloperAlibaba (Qwen team)
Announced22 September 2026, Apsara
StatusIn training, no release date
Context and pricingNot announced
Live in Twelver nowQwen3.8 Max · Qwen3.8 Flash · Qwen3.7 Plus
We’ll fill in the blanks as Alibaba publishes them.

When is Qwen 4 coming out?

There is no date. On stage at Apsara the Qwen lead said “very soon” and left it there. As soon as Qwen 4 is available on Alibaba Cloud we’ll connect it in Twelver and update this page.

What Qwen3.8-Flash-Next shows

Qwen3.8-Flash-Next is an experimental model built on the architecture Alibaba is preparing for Qwen 4: 125B parameters with 6B active per token, and 262K tokens of context extensible to 1M. Alibaba says it cost about a ninth as much to train as Qwen3.7-Plus while doing better on code and office work — which is why Qwen 4 is expected to be noticeably cheaper to run than the current generation. No prices are out yet, so treat that as a forecast.

What you can use today

Twelver runs the current generation: Qwen3.8 Max, Qwen3.8 Flash, and Qwen3.7 Plus, which reads images. If you call Qwen through our API, moving to Qwen 4 will be a one-line change of the model name. How the models differ and which to pick is in the Qwen chapter.

Frequently asked questions

When will Qwen 4 be released?
There is no date. Alibaba announced Qwen 4 on 22 September 2026 and said it is in training and coming “very soon”. We’ll update this page on release day.
Which models are in Qwen 4?
Four were announced: Qwen 4 Max, Qwen 4 Plus, Qwen 4 Flash and Qwen 4 27B. Alibaba has not published specs for any of them yet.
What is Qwen 4 27B?
The most compact model in the family, at 27B parameters. Whether it will ship with open weights, and under what licence, has not been announced.
How will Qwen 4 differ from Qwen 3.8?
Mainly the new architecture, which you can already judge by Qwen3.8-Flash-Next: Alibaba says it trains at about a ninth of Qwen3.7-Plus’s cost and beats it on code. There are no official Qwen 4 vs Qwen 3.8 comparisons yet.
Can I use Qwen right now?
Yes. Qwen3.8 Max, Qwen3.8 Flash and Qwen3.7 Plus are available in Twelver over the OpenAI-compatible API, with no Alibaba account needed. Which one to pick is in the Qwen chapter.

While you wait — the current version is live

Open in Twelver chat
Via APIOpenAI-compatible API for agentsLearn moreTwelver AI Chat
Rate your experience