Alibaba (Qwen) · image model · Released Sep 14, 2026Qwen-Image 2.1
Unified text-to-image generation and image editing model with native RGBA transparency and reference-image editing.
- Arena score
- 1,362#20 of 61 · image editing
- Starting price
- —Not published
- Largest size
- —Not published
- References
- Yesinput images for editing
How it rates and what it costs
- Text to image arena
- 1,225 ±6#19 of 82 · 19,604 votes
- Image editing arena
- 1,362 ±6#20 of 61 · 39,412 votes
Arena scores come from blind, side-by-side human votes on the same prompts (higher is better; ± is the 95% range). Boards updated Oct 26, 2026 and Oct 27, 2026.
The details
- Lab
- Alibaba (Qwen)
- Type
- Image model
- Released
- Sep 14, 2026
- Inputs
- Text prompts, Reference images
- Output
- Images
- Can do
- Text to image, Image editing
- Weights
- Open weights · qwen-research
- Availability
- 1 API host
More image models from Alibaba (Qwen)
About Qwen-Image 2.1
How good is Qwen-Image 2.1?
In blind side-by-side votes, Qwen-Image 2.1 scores 1,225 for text to image (#19 of 82) and 1,362 for image editing (#20 of 61). Higher is better; scores within about 12 points of each other are effectively tied.
Who makes Qwen-Image 2.1?
Qwen-Image 2.1 is an image model from Alibaba (Qwen), released Sep 14, 2026.
What can Qwen-Image 2.1 do?
Qwen-Image 2.1 accepts text prompts and reference images and produces images. In practice: text to image and image editing.
Is Qwen-Image 2.1 open source?
Yes. Alibaba (Qwen) publishes the weights under the qwen-research, so you can run it on your own hardware.
Where can I use Qwen-Image 2.1?
It is listed by 1 API host we track.
What are the alternatives to Qwen-Image 2.1?
The closest image models from other labs, by release date, are Arrow 2 (QuiverAI, Sep 16, 2026), GPT Image 2.5 Flare (OpenAI, Sep 8, 2026), FLUX 3 Image (Black Forest Labs, Oct 5, 2026) and Nano Banana 2.1 (Google, Oct 6, 2026).