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Julia
Julia

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Free 1M-context LLM API: Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Max, $0 Forever

#ai

[!NOTE]
TL;DR: Qwen3.8-Max (1M context, Alibaba flagship) is now $0 forever on apishare.cc. Rate-limited to 2 req/min per user to prevent abuse. No credit card required.

The 1M-context LLM everyone needs

Last month I was building a RAG pipeline and hit a wall: every 128K-context model I tested either cost $2-8/M tokens or required a credit card to try.

Then I found alibaba/qwen3.8-max — Alibaba's flagship model with a 1 million token context window — and it's currently free forever on apishare.cc.

What makes Qwen3.8-Max interesting

Qwen3.8-Max is Alibaba's response to GPT-4-class models. Key specs:

  • 1M context window (128K active, 1M cached)
  • Strong multilingual performance (EN/ZH/JP/KO)
  • Function calling + structured outputs
  • Pricing on apishare.cc: $0 input / $0 output (promotional, unlimited duration)

How to use it (2 minutes)

  1. Sign up at apishare.cc (no credit card)
  2. Grab an API key from the dashboard
  3. Call the /v1/chat/completions endpoint with model: alibaba/qwen3.8-max 
curl https://api.apishare.cc/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  -d '{"model":"alibaba/qwen3.8-max","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"Hello!"}]}'
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Rate limit transparency

The free tier is limited to 2 requests per minute per user. This is disclosed upfront — it's an anti-abuse measure, not a hidden restriction. For personal projects and prototyping, 2 req/min is plenty.

Why I wrote this

I've spent weeks hunting for free, long-context LLM APIs that actually work. Most "free" tiers are time-limited trials or have hidden costs. apishare.cc maintains a daily-updated ranking of verified free LLM APIs, so you don't have to test dead endpoints yourself.

If you're building something with LLMs on a $0 budget, this is worth bookmarking.

Verified on 2026-09-13: HTTP 200 confirmed, $0 billing confirmed, 429 rate-limit confirmed at 2 req/min.

Disclosure: I'm affiliated with apishare.cc. The promotional pricing is real and currently unlimited in duration. The rate limit is honestly disclosed.

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