Alibaba slashes Qwen AI prices 80% on Qoder to lure US developers

Alibaba Group has dramatically slashed prices for its flagship Qwen AI models on the Qoder agentic coding platform, offering up to 80% off to hook global developers. The e-commerce giant announced on X that its Qwen3.7-Max model is now 80% cheaper, while the smaller Qwen3.7-Plus is discounted by 60% for international users daily from 10pm to 8am Beijing time. While the promotion is branded as an 'off-peak' discount, the timing — 10am to 8pm US Eastern Time — appears to be a calculated strategy to capture American developers during their workday. Alibaba itself pointed out the twist, stating on X: 'If you’re in the Americas, here’s the twist: off-peak covers most of your workday.' The aggressive price cut comes amid fierce competition between US and Chinese AI firms, with rivals including Anthropic and Zhipu AI vying for developer attention. In China, the discount applies to the platform’s Qoderwork tool, which supports AI models including Qwen. Alibaba suggested Chinese users schedule tasks during the day or queue commands before bed, allowing Qoder’s autonomous agents to execute code overnight. This promotion follows a separate half-price discount for Qwen3.7-Max that concluded earlier this week, signaling an ongoing price war as Alibaba seeks to expand its developer ecosystem globally.