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ModelScope

Alibaba’s hub: 50 free models over API, many of them frontier Chinese ones.

Get API key

ModelScope is Alibaba’s public model hub. The inference API puts a large free catalogue in front of you — 50 models on the live list, MiniMax M3, Qwen 3.8, DeepSeek V4 and GLM among them — at 2,000 requests a day, OpenAI-compatible.

Sign-up wants a phone number — often a Chinese one — before the inference key works. 1M context on the long models. If you specifically want Qwen from the source, Alibaba Model Studio is the other door; ModelScope is the wider zoo.

Free models
50
Max context
1M
Free tier
2,000 requests per day
Requirement
Phone verification, no card

Endpoint

Base URLhttps://api-inference.modelscope.cn/v1
Env varMODELSCOPE_API_KEY
Rate limit2,000 requests/day across all models

Code examples

npm install openai
import OpenAI from 'openai'

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api-inference.modelscope.cn/v1',
  apiKey: process.env.MODELSCOPE_API_KEY
})

const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'MiniMax/MiniMax-M3',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'Explain closures in one paragraph.' }]
})

console.log(response.choices[0].message.content)

Worth knowing

Models you get for free50