Your First API Call
Go from account creation to a working API response in under five minutes.
Your First API Call
1. Create an Account
Sign up at qwenapi.com. No credit card required to start — you get 1M free tokens per model for 90 days on the International region.
2. Get Your API Key
After signing in, go to Dashboard → API Keys → Create Key. Copy the key and store it somewhere safe — it won't be shown again.
Set it as an environment variable:
``bash
export QWENAPI_KEY="sk-..."
`
3. Install the SDK
QwenAPI uses the standard OpenAI SDK. No custom package needed.
`bash
Python
pip install openai
Node.js
npm install openai
`
4. Make Your First Request
Python
`python
import os
from openai import OpenAI
client = OpenAI(
api_key=os.environ["QWENAPI_KEY"],
base_url="https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
model="qwen3.5-flash",
messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France?"}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
`
Node.js
`javascript
import OpenAI from "openai";
const client = new OpenAI({
apiKey: process.env.QWENAPI_KEY,
baseURL: "https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1",
});
const response = await client.chat.completions.create({
model: "qwen3.5-flash",
messages: [{ role: "user", content: "What is the capital of France?" }],
});
console.log(response.choices[0].message.content);
`
cURL
`bash
curl https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $QWENAPI_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "qwen3.5-flash",
"messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is the capital of France?"}]
}'
`
5. Check Your Usage
Token usage is in every response under response.usage:
`python
print(response.usage.prompt_tokens) # input tokens
print(response.usage.completion_tokens) # output tokens
`
Troubleshooting
Next Steps
- Choose a model — find the right model for your workload
- Regions — switch to a US or EU endpoint for lower latency