Overview
Qwen3.8-Max-0902 is the 2 September 2026 snapshot of Alibaba's Qwen-Max flagship. QwenCloud describes it as an upgraded snapshot with enhanced coding for complex engineering projects, improved collaborative-agent performance with multi-tool orchestration, and refined native vision understanding across chart reasoning and document parsing. It is a post-training update, not a new base model.
The specifications carry over from Qwen3.8-Max: a 1M-token context window, up to 131K tokens of output (in both standard and thinking modes), and image, text and video input with text output. The underlying base is the 2.4-trillion-parameter sparse Mixture-of-Experts model documented on QwenCloud's Qwen3.8-Max page.
Pricing is unchanged from the August 2026 Qwen3.8-Max release: $2 per million input tokens, $6 per million output tokens, $0.25 per million tokens for implicit cache input, $2.50 for explicit cache creation and $0.17 for explicit cache reads.
The snapshot is served as model id `qwen3.8-max-0902`, with `qwen3.8-max-2026-09-02` documented as an alias. Alibaba Cloud's Model Studio documentation references the same id, so the snapshot is addressable from both QwenCloud and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio.
| Released | 2026-09-02 |
|---|---|
| License | Proprietary (hosted API) |
| Weights | API only |
| Parameters | 2.4 trillion (Mixture-of-Experts) — the Qwen3.8-Max base this snapshot updates |
| Context | 1M |
| Max output | 131K tokens |
| Architecture | A dated snapshot of Qwen3.8-Max rather than a new architecture: the QwenCloud model card describes the same sparse Mixture-of-Experts base, re-post-trained. Alibaba serves it under the id qwen3.8-max-0902, with qwen3.8-max-2026-09-02 as an alias. |
| Modalities | Text, Image, Video |
| Status | Generally available |
Pricing
| Input | $2.00 / 1M tokens |
|---|---|
| Cached input | $0.25 / 1M tokens |
| Output | $6.00 / 1M tokens |
Implicit cache input is $0.25 per 1M tokens; explicit cache creation is $2.50 and explicit cache reads $0.17 per 1M tokens.
Strengths
- Targets coding on complex engineering projects and multi-tool agent orchestration, per QwenCloud's own description of the snapshot
- Refined native vision understanding for chart reasoning and document parsing
- 1M-token context with up to 131K tokens of output, including in thinking mode
- Same price as the base Qwen3.8-Max — $2 / $6 per million tokens, with cached input at $0.25
- Pinnable: qwen3.8-max-2026-09-02 addresses this exact snapshot rather than a floating alias
Best for
- Reach for it for long-horizon coding agents that need a large context and cheap cached input
- Reach for it for multi-tool agent workflows over office documents and long task chains
- Reach for it when a workload mixes text with charts, screenshots or video that must be read natively
- Reach for it when you need to pin a dated snapshot so model behaviour does not shift under a running system
How to access
| Provider | Model ID |
|---|---|
| QwenCloud ↗ | qwen3.8-max-0902 |
| Alibaba Cloud Model Studio ↗ | qwen3.8-max-0902 |
Qwen-Max — every version
The full lineage of the Qwen-Max line, newest first. Every version has its own page — click any to compare specs, benchmarks and pricing.
| Version | Released | Context | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8-Max-0902current | 2026-09-02 | 1M | Proprietary |
| Qwen3.8-Max | 2026-08-03 | 1M | Proprietary (weights published as Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B) |
| Qwen3.8-Max-Preview | 2026-07-19 | — | Proprietary |
| Qwen3.7-Max | 2026-05 | — | Proprietary |
| Qwen3-Max | 2025-09 | — | Proprietary |
| Qwen2.5-Max | 2025-01-29 | — | Proprietary |
FAQ
What is Qwen3.8-Max-0902?
Qwen3.8-Max-0902 is the 2 September 2026 snapshot of Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Max flagship. QwenCloud describes it as an upgraded snapshot with enhanced coding for complex engineering projects, improved collaborative-agent performance with multi-tool orchestration, and refined native vision understanding for chart reasoning and document parsing.
How is it different from Qwen3.8-Max?
It is a post-training update on the same base rather than a new model. The context window (1M tokens), maximum output (131K tokens), modalities (image, text and video in, text out) and pricing all carry over from Qwen3.8-Max; what Alibaba changed is the training that sits on top.
What does it cost?
QwenCloud lists $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens, with implicit cache input at $0.25, explicit cache creation at $2.50 and explicit cache reads at $0.17 per million tokens — the same rates as the base Qwen3.8-Max.
Which model id should I call?
Use qwen3.8-max-0902, or the alias qwen3.8-max-2026-09-02 if you want to pin this exact dated snapshot. Both are documented on QwenCloud, and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio's text-generation documentation references the same id.
Are the weights open?
No. Qwen3.8-Max-0902 is a hosted, API-only snapshot. Alibaba has not published downloadable weights for it.