Chinese Company Alibaba Open Sourced Its Advanced Model 'Qwen-Image-2.1'
September 25, 2026
IBL News | New York
Chinese company Alibaba Cloud, creator of the AI models Qwen, released its advanced image model this month as open-source software, unifying text-to-image generation and image editing into a single model.
Qwen-Image-2.1 includes a 7B-parameter visual generation component and native support for generating and editing transparent images.
Specifically, it generates regular or transparent images from prompts, edits transparent layers, and extracts subjects from photos (as shown below).
According to the company, “Despite its compact size, the model delivers strong image generation quality, and the Qwen-Image-Bench comparison below shows its performance alongside other open-source and closed-source models.”
- “Use up to 10 reference images, specify local edits, preserve people and products, and handle a wide range of tasks.”
- “Realistic textures and refined aesthetics: Improved typography, portrait lighting, and fine details make generated images more visually compelling.”
