Qwen

2 models with a reviewed guide

All models

Alibaba’s Qwen appears on Y-API with two entries from the 3.8 generation, both accepting text, image and video input over a one-million-token window: Flash, the cheaper workhorse, and Max, the flagship that shares the generation but sits a tier above on price.

Sources reviewed: Y-API catalog snapshot:

About this vendor

Vendor-level selection advice by Y-API. The per-model pages linked below carry the model-specific checks; nothing here is a measured comparison.

Where this vendor fits

Qwen3.8 Flash is one of the cheapest catalog entries that accepts video input, which makes it the natural first candidate for high-volume chart, document and screenshot workloads; Max is the fallback for tasks where Flash has demonstrably fallen short.

What to watch for

The two entries share a generation and a window, so the upgrade decision rests on behavior rather than capability lists — and at ten times the input price, Max needs evidence. The linked Flash-Next card describes an architecture, not a promise of what the gateway serves.

Models on Y-API

Prices are account-credit snapshots from the Y-API catalog. Each model links to its own guide with a cost estimator and a request example.

Qwen · Models on Y-API
ModelContext windowInput / 1M tokensOutput / 1M tokens
Qwen3.8 Flashqwen/qwen3.8-flash1,000,000$0.20$0.02$0.50$0.05
Qwen3.8 Maxqwen/qwen3.8-max1,000,000$2.00$0.20$6.00$0.60

Account credit / Cash equivalent · $1 paid adds $10 of credit; the cash equivalent is credit consumed ÷ 10. These are Y-API prices, not the publisher’s list prices.

Choosing within the lineup

Start on Qwen3.8 Flash and compare it against GLM 5.3 Flash and Step 3.7 Flash on the same multimodal inputs. Move a specific workload to Max only after showing it fails on Flash with the same inputs.

Before you choose

Should I start on Qwen3.8 Flash or Max?

Flash. It is roughly a tenth of the input price and shares the window and modalities, so the cheaper entry settles most workloads. Max earns its place only through a task-level comparison on your own inputs.

Sources & scope

Vendor scope on this site is exactly the reviewed model guides listed above; a vendor page exists only while at least one of its models is reviewed. Claims about architecture or positioning follow the cited pages. We do not publish measured latency, uptime or benchmark scores for any vendor.