The best alternatives to Qwen Studio
Qwen Studio might not be the right fit: the price, a missing feature or a payment model you don't like. These are the closest alternatives in our catalog, ordered by rating, with the full review of each one.
Why look for a Qwen Studio alternative
Qwen Studio (formerly Qwen Chat) remains a free web chat that non-technical users can understand, with search, research, files, image creation and editing, and video. The value at zero cost holds up. The cautions remain its data policy and the need to check research-response sources.
What its own users repeat in the August 7, 2026 sweep:
- The policy permits de-identified content and feedback to develop and improve services and models, without documenting a clear in-product switch (strong theme)
- An academic search evaluation found variation in the credibility of sources cited by Qwen Chat (present theme)
Best alternatives to Qwen Studio
The Chinese assistant running V4 with open weights, completely free.
The assistant behind the GLM models, with its weights published openly.
Moonshot's assistant with a million-token context window.
What the internet says about each alternative
DeepSeek 4.1/5 · Free
The chat is still free with no paywall, and V4's weights remain open under an MIT licence on Hugging Face. This week's news comes from the vendor itself: on 6 August it confirmed on its developer platform that it will raise API pricing significantly, without giving a figure or a date, and the news spread through the press and Hacker News. Published rates, 0.14 dollars and 0.28 dollars per million tokens on Flash, have not changed yet. V4-Pro still has no official general availability date, and personal data is still processed in China as its policy states
Where it wins: The chat is completely free, with no paid plan or subscription wall, and that is the most cited reason to use it Where it slips: On 6 August 2026 it confirmed on its own developer platform that it will raise API pricing significantly, with no figure or date given, and the news spread through the press and Hacker News, casting doubt on whether it is still the cheap option
Z.ai (GLM) 4/5 · Free + from $18
A month after the previous sweep the entry price is still eighteen dollars a month, and the only dated news is that Hugging Face security teams again turned to GLM-5.2's open weights when commercial models refused the task
Where it wins: Price is the most cited reason to switch in technical forums, performance close to closed models for a fraction of the fee Where it slips: It is no longer the obvious pick on price, the DeepSeek V4 Flash launch contests that ground in technical forums and comparison tables
Kimi 3.7/5 · Free + from $19
The network still reads Kimi K3 as strong on long research and open weights, but new account sign-ups remain frozen since 20 July with no reopening date, and the entry price and conversation privacy complaints are unchanged.
Where it wins: Frontier-level quality on long research and documents, still the most praised feature in app store ratings Where it slips: Three weeks after the 19 July cutoff, Moonshot's own notice still says new plans are not available for purchase, with no opening date
Comparison table
| Tool | Price | Free trial | Platforms | Rating | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen Studio | Free | No | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows | VisitQwen Studio (opens in a new tab) | |
| DeepSeek | Free | No | Web, iOS, Android | VisitDeepSeek (opens in a new tab) | |
| Z.ai (GLM) | Free + from $18 | No | Web | VisitZ.ai (GLM) (opens in a new tab) | |
| Kimi | Free + from $19 | No | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows | VisitKimi (opens in a new tab) |
Still unsure? Read the full review of Qwen Studio?