Qwen Image 2.1
Alibaba's Qwen Image 2.1: a compact model for generation and editing, transparent backgrounds and up to 10 references.
First request
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
base_url="https://api.altrouter.ai/v1",
api_key="ar-...",
)
img = client.images.generate(
model="qwen-image-2.1",
prompt="a red fox in the snow",
)
print(img.data[0].url)import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
baseURL: "https://api.altrouter.ai/v1",
apiKey: process.env.ALTROUTER_API_KEY, // ar-...
});
const img = await client.images.generate({
model: "qwen-image-2.1",
prompt: "a red fox in the snow",
});
console.log(img.data[0].url);curl https://api.altrouter.ai/v1/images/generations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ar-..." \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "qwen-image-2.1",
"prompt": "a red fox in the snow"
}'The interface is OpenAI-compatible: in existing code only the base_url, the key and the model id change — nothing else.
Qwen Image 2.1 against its price neighbours
| Model | Price | Unit | Discount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recraft Crisp UpscaleRecraft | $0.0034 | image | −15% | Open |
| Recraft Remove BackgroundRecraft | $0.0085 | image | −15% | Open |
| Imagen 4 FastGoogle | $0.023 | image | — | Open |
| Qwen Image 2.1this pageAlibaba | $0.023 | image | — | |
| Nano Banana 2 LiteGoogle | $0.028 | image | −17% | Open |
Prices and parameters come from the same catalog as the price above; this is not a benchmark, it is comparable billing terms.
Limits
Pricing is flat — $0.023 per image, regardless of prompt length. Allowed aspect_ratio values: 1:1, 4:3, 3:4, 3:2, 2:3, 16:9, 9:16.
There is no subscription: every successful request is billed at the price above, and a failed one is not billed at all. There is no markup over the vendor's official price. No Alibaba account of your own is needed, and no VPN: requests go to api.altrouter.ai and we make the upstream call.
Rate limiting is shared across models and counted per key: 600 requests per minute by default, and a 429 with retry-after: 60 above it. An individual key can get its own limit and a spending cap per day, week, month or lifetime in the dashboard.
When to pick Qwen Image 2.1, and when a neighbour
The cheaper neighbour is Recraft Remove Background: $0.0085 per image against $0.023 for Qwen Image 2.1. On the same volume the bill comes out 2.7× smaller. It is the sensible pick where the task is repetitive and high-volume — labelling, classification, short templated answers — the kind of work where quality is bounded by the prompt rather than the model.
The dearer neighbour is Imagen 4 Fast: $0.023 per image. On catalog parameters it offers the same capabilities and the same order of context, so the premium is only justified if Qwen Image 2.1 falls short on your own task.
Guessing is more expensive than checking: the table above is prices and parameters, not a benchmark, and it cannot tell you which model does better on your own prompt. Switching costs one line — the model id in the request changes, the base_url and the key stay — so running both on your own data takes minutes.
OpenAI-compatible image generation endpoint. The result is re-hosted on our CDN and returned as a URL.
/v1/images/generations