01 DeepSeek
Open-weight AI chatbot and API with 1M-token context and usage-based pricing
AI Chatbots from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
Qwen alternatives
5 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jul 3, 2026 · how we verify
DeepSeek is the top Qwen alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Chatbots), starts at $0, and has a free tier. All 5 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Qwen, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Qwen alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek | AI Chatbots | $0 | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Gemini | AI Chatbots | $7.99/mo | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| ChatGPT | AI Chatbots | $8/mo | yes | Jun 11, 2026 |
| Mistral Le Chat | AI Chatbots | $14.99/mo | yes | Jun 18, 2026 |
| Claude | AI Chatbots | $20/mo | yes | Jul 3, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 Gemini
Google's multimodal AI assistant with real-time Search access and deep Workspace integration
AI Chatbots from $7.99/mo free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
03 ChatGPT
Conversational AI assistant by OpenAI with multimodal reasoning, voice, and agent capabilities
AI Chatbots from $8/mo free tier: yes Verified JUN 11, 2026
04 Mistral Le Chat
Mistral's multimodal AI assistant — chat, web search, code execution, and image generation from a European frontier lab
AI Chatbots from $14.99/mo free tier: yes Verified JUN 18, 2026
05 Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant built for long-context analysis, coding, and safe reasoning
AI Chatbots from $20/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 3, 2026
When to stay with Qwen
Documented strengths from our Qwen review — switching isn't always the right call:
- Genuinely free, capable, multimodal chat with no paywall for core use
- Truly open weights under Apache 2.0 — self-host with no license cost
- Very cheap API at the low end (Flash from $0.05 per million input tokens) and competitive at the top