Qwen Image 2.1 license: research only, commercial needs a request
Qwen-Image-2.1 ships under the Qwen Research License: non-commercial means research or evaluation only, and commercial use needs a separate license.
No, not under the weights license alone. The Qwen Research License for Qwen-Image-2.1 (release date September 20, 2026) grants rights "FOR NON-COMMERCIAL PURPOSES ONLY", defines non-commercial as research or evaluation purposes only, and says commercial use needs a separate license requested at model-business@notice.qwencloud.com.
Terms are quoted from the license file, read 2026-10-01. This is a summary of the text, not legal advice.
What does the license grant?
Section 2(a) grants a non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable, royalty-free limited license to use, reproduce, distribute, copy, create derivative works of and modify the Materials, for non-commercial purposes only. Section 1(i) defines Non-Commercial as "for research or evaluation purposes only". Section 2(b) says you shall not use the Materials for any commercial purpose without a separate commercial license.
| Question | What the license says |
|---|---|
| Commercial use of the weights | Needs a separate license (2b) |
| Where to ask | model-business@notice.qwencloud.com (2b) |
| Research or evaluation | Allowed (1i, 2a) |
| Other uses not listed | Request a separate license (9a) |
How is it different from the earlier Qwen-Image license?
The earlier Qwen-Image card said Apache 2.0; see Qwen Image license: Apache 2.0. The 2.1 model card's metadata names qwen-research as the license, so do not carry the Apache assumption over to 2.1 weights.
What does the Sume catalog list instead?
Sume's image contract accepts the ids qwen/qwen-image and qwen/qwen-image-max; it does not list a Qwen-Image-2.1 id. See Qwen Image 2.1 API. Which terms apply to those hosted ids is not stated in the cited docs, so check them before you plan a commercial use. The image docs also say a parameter a model does not list is rejected with 400 unsupported_parameter.
What should I do before shipping?
Decide whether your use is research or commercial. If it is commercial and you want the weights, write to the address in section 2(b). If you only need generated images through an API, read the terms of the service you call instead of the weights license.
Sources
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