Alibaba adds commercial restrictions to open-weight Qwen3.8-Max AI model
Alibaba Group Holding has made the core files of its latest flagship AI model Qwen3.8-Max free for anyone to download, as the tech giant introduces new rules requiring large companies to pay for a separate commercial licence to use it. The terms apply to users or their affiliates running a “model as a service” or “AI work assistant” business whose aggregate revenue exceeds US$50 million over any…
Alibaba has introduced commercial restrictions for its latest AI model, Qwen3.8-Max, making its core files free to download while requiring large companies to pay for a separate commercial license if their aggregate revenue exceeds US$50 million over any consecutive 12-month period. This shift in strategy comes after Alibaba had previously kept its most advanced Max models proprietary.
The model's open weights, totaling 2.4 trillion parameters, allow developers to use, copy, modify, and distribute Qwen3.8-Max without paying Alibaba, although they must bear the compute costs themselves. Access to the model is also available through paid APIs, with rates of US$2 per million input tokens and US$6 per million output tokens in China, and US$2 per million input tokens and US$6 per million output tokens internationally.
Alibaba's decision to release Qwen3.8-Max's weights marks a shift in the competitive landscape of AI developers, who are increasingly focusing on both model performance and commercial prospects.
Brief written by urgent.news from SCMP Tech's own syndicated text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
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