Alibaba Launches Paid Tiers for QwenWork AI Assistant

Alibaba has launched paid subscription options for its QwenWork AI assistant, testing how much consumers are willing to invest in AI services. The Qwen app now features three membership tiers for QwenWork, with annual subscriptions priced between 200 yuan (US$29.6) and 1,499 yuan for the premium version, as detailed on Apple's App Store. Additionally, users can buy extra video generation credits, which range from 26 yuan to 968 yuan based on their usage needs. This initiative follows Alibaba's earlier public testing of QwenWork this month, which was initially made available for free to encourage user adoption. The Qwen chatbot continues to be offered at no cost. Alibaba, the owner of the South China Morning Post, did not provide a comment on Tuesday. This pricing approach highlights the increasing expenses tied to AI development and implementation.