OpenClaw with Qwen (Free Models)

This guide shows you how to configure OpenClaw to use Qwen Portal’s free AI models – a cost-effective alternative to paid providers like OpenAI or Anthropic.

Why Qwen?

Free to use – No credit card required
Good code capabilities – Qwen Coder model optimized for programming
Large context window – 128k tokens
Vision support – Qwen Vision model for image analysis
OAuth authentication – Simple login flow

Prerequisites

OpenClaw installed (see VPS Setup)
Qwen Portal account (free at portal.qwen.ai)

Step 1: Install Qwen Portal Auth Skill

npm install -g openclaw  # already installed
openclaw plugins install @openclaw/qwen-portal-auth
openclaw plugins list

Step 2: Authenticate with Qwen Portal

openclaw configure --section qwen-portal

This opens a browser OAuth flow and stores the token in ~/.openclaw/agents/<agent>/auth-profiles.json.

Step 3: Configure Qwen Models

Edit ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json:

{
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "qwen-portal": {
        "baseUrl": "https://portal.qwen.ai/v1",
        "apiKey": "qwen-oauth",
        "api": "openai-completions",
        "models": [
          {
            "id": "coder-model",
            "name": "Qwen Coder",
            "reasoning": false,
            "input": ["text"],
            "cost": {"input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0},
            "contextWindow": 128000,
            "maxTokens": 8192
          },
          {
            "id": "vision-model",
            "name": "Qwen Vision",
            "reasoning": false,
            "input": ["text", "image"],
            "cost": {"input": 0, "output": 0, "cacheRead": 0, "cacheWrite": 0},
            "contextWindow": 128000,
            "maxTokens": 8192
          }
        ]
      }
    }
  },
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "qwen-portal/coder-model",
        "fallbacks": []
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Test the Configuration

# Test text model
openclaw agent --model qwen --message "Write a Python function to calculate fibonacci"

# Test vision model
openclaw agent --model qwen-vision --message "What's in this image?" --image ./screenshot.png

Model Comparison

Model	Context	Max Tokens	Input Types	Best For
`coder-model`	128k	8k	Text	Code, general tasks
`vision-model`	128k	8k	Text + Image	Image analysis, OCR

Cost Comparison

Provider	Model	Cost per 1M tokens
Qwen Portal	Coder	Free
Qwen Portal	Vision	Free
OpenAI	GPT-4.1	~$10–20
Anthropic	Claude Sonnet	~$3–15

Using Qwen with Subagents

{
  "agents": {
    "list": [
      { "id": "main", "model": "qwen-portal/coder-model" },
      { "id": "code-reviewer", "model": "qwen-portal/coder-model" }
    ]
  }
}

Troubleshooting

# OAuth token expired – re-authenticate
openclaw configure --section qwen-portal

# Model not found – verify config
openclaw models list
cat ~/.openclaw/openclaw.json | jq '.models.providers.qwen-portal'