Five months after Qwen's OAuth shutdown, BYO-key has become the default free-tier replacement
lucasbennett_1 · reddit · 2026-09-27
A retrospective on April's Qwen OAuth shutdown, arguing it wasn't a one-off but the formal end of the free-tier era — free tiers are funnels, not plans.
- Any CLI harness now takes a BYO key; the qwen-code-shaped workflow points anywhere OpenAI-compatible, with the model id as just a string.
- Current gen is qwen3.8 with metered paygo running cents per run on deepinfra and similar hosts; older 3.5/3.6 gens remain hosted.
- The zero-cost lane survives on your own GPU, with smaller 3.x builds fitting a single card.
- Studio direct keys remain the clean first-party paid option.
The author asks the community what stack they landed on and whether anyone misses the zero-setup OAuth feel.
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