The newest Qwen-Image model is Qwen-Image-2.1, released on September 20, 2026. The line's usual gap is about 41 days and 34 have passed, so it is mid-cycle.
How long it has been since the last release against the line's usual gap and its recent ones — the rhythm, not a date.
Latest: Qwen-Image-2.1 · Sep 20, 2026
Every Monday, only when something shipped: the AI models that came out, what each one changed, and which lines are due next.
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Newest first — what each version changed versus the one before, in Alibaba's own numbers.
A 7B open-weight model that unifies generation and editing, adds native transparent (RGBA) output and up to 10 reference images, under a research-only license.
Compared with Qwen-Image 2.0 · the model it replaces
Scores 1223 in early blind image comparisons
Arena Text-to-Image — people pick the better image without knowing the model
1223
✦ preliminary score, 11,441 votes · #19 on Arena, Oct 2026 · no Qwen-Image 2.0 score to compare
Scores well above Qwen-Image 2.0 in independent blind image comparisons
Artificial Analysis Text to Image Arena — people pick the better image without knowing the model
1042
▲ up from 990 for Qwen Image 2.0 (March 2026 version) · +52 Elo · Artificial Analysis, Oct 2026
Merges Qwen-Image's separate generation and editing models into one smaller, faster model with native 2K resolution and prompts up to 1,000 tokens; available in Qwen Chat and Alibaba Cloud's API, with no downloadable weights.
Alibaba's open image model (Apache 2.0), strong at rendering text inside images.