Changes to Qwen I failed to notice
While using chat.qwen.ai in a browser, I noticed an “Upgrade” button to the right of my username. That means there is now a way to pay for extended chat usage. Previously, paying was an option only for those using an API key, which made using Qwen as a chatbot uniquely generous. On the downside, this strongly suggests the free offer will be much more limited than it was until now. Maybe it already kicks you out after a few prompts, but I wouldn’t know because I use Qwen as a secondary chatbot!
Things started getting weird when I noticed the Android app had no upgrade option. Then I remembered I needed to download new APKs manually because apps in the Google Play Store are restricted geographically.
As I recently “debated” with Lumo, there are two Qwen apps in the Play Store, both saying that “This app is not available for any of your devices.”
- “Qwen Studio”, by Alibaba Cloud — ai.qwenlm.chat.android
- “Qwen – Alibaba AI Assistant”, by Qwen Team — com.tongyi.intl
Visiting qwen.ai/download and clicking the Google Play button triggers the download of download.qwen.ai/android/Qwen_release.apk. This still works, but guess what happened?
- Previously, Qwen_release.apk was a version of “Qwen Studio” (
ai.qwenlm.chat.android). - Now, Qwen_release.apk is a version of “Qwen” (
com.tongyi.intl)!
So instead of updating my older app, I now have two of them, and the second one offers paid plans! 😮
The “old” and the “new” app (which are actually different apps) have slightly different designs, but they both can use my Google account:
Strangely, the “new” Android app (once again, new in that this is what download.qwen.ai/android/Qwen_release.apk is now) only displays subscription fees for Germany, even when I use a VPN. In Firefox on a computer, using a VPN makes it ignore my Google account and use the IP to list prices. I needed the prices for Romania because Eastern Europe tends to have better prices, and indeed, that was the case.
💰 Germany:
💰 Romania (1 euro is about 5.25-5.26 RON):
So, despite Romania having a higher VAT and these prices being VAT-inclusive:
| Country | Go | Plus | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | €4.49 | €19.99 | €104.99 |
| Romania | about €2.85 | about €18 | less than €98 |
I have a bad feeling the free plan will be severely restricted, like it is with ChatGPT and Grok… Et tu, Brute? 😭
maaan that’s crazy… I hope they’re not making it fully prised like SlopGPT and others 🙁
More changes I noticed when using the Qwen app for Android:
— On startup, Qwen Studio (
ai.qwenlm.chat.android, version 2.10.0) claimed that I needed to “download and upgrade to the new Qwen app.”— But it opened the Google Play Store to “Qwen – Alibaba AI Assistant” (
com.tongyi.intl, version 2.0.5), which was not installable in Europe.— So I needed to go to qwen.ai/download and download download.qwen.ai/android/Qwen_release.apk, which came in version 2.0.4.
Are those people retarded?
Qwen3.7-Plus believes that “The Google Play Store block in Europe is almost certainly due to GDPR and the EU AI Act compliance reviews. Many non-EU AI applications are currently being geo-restricted on official European app stores while their data-handling policies are evaluated. This forces EU users to sideload the APK from the official website, which is a massive UX failure on Alibaba’s part for not providing a clear, localized explanation.”
Either way, they discontinued the old Qwen app, which couldn’t let you subscribe to a paid plan, and forced the new one, which you still need to sideload in the EU.