Alibaba releases Qwen3.6-Max-Preview as a proprietary hosted model

Alibaba released Qwen3.6-Max-Preview on April 20, calling it its most capable model so far and an early preview that it will keep improving. Unlike most Qwen releases, it is a proprietary hosted model without open weights, available through Qwen Studio and the Alibaba Cloud Model Studio API. The move shows Alibaba keeping its top model closed to drive cloud API usage.

• Release date: Monday, April 20, 2026
• Status: preview, with later versions planned
• Access: Qwen Studio and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio API
• Open weights: none for this model