Model decommissioning policy

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To optimize resources and provide users with the latest, most advanced models, Alibaba Cloud Model Studio periodically retires legacy models. This topic describes the model retirement process.

Notification process

Notification schedule

  • For snapshot models, which are identified by a specific date in their name (for example, qwen-max-2025-01-25, common for Qwen series models), we issue a sunset notice 30 days before the official sunset date.

  • For mainline models, which are the core versions of a model series, we issue a sunset notice 3 months before the official sunset date.

Notification channels

We send notifications via email, internal messages, and official website announcements.

email, and internal messages are sent only to users who have called the models scheduled for sunset in the last 3 months.

Retirement impact

  • Starting from the date of the retirement notice, the QPM (queries per minute) and TPM (tokens per minute) for retiring models will gradually decrease. For models that received a quota increase, their limits will revert to the default rate limit before this reduction begins. Throughout this period, the model API and related console features will remain fully functional.

  • Starting from the official retirement date:

    • Model inference: Model inference will be discontinued. API calls to the retired model will fail.

    • Model fine-tuning and model deployment: You will no longer be able to start new fine-tuning and deployment operations on the retired model. (For some models, these features may remain available after the retirement date. Please refer to the official retirement notice for details.) This does not affect existing trained and deployed models.

    • Console features and official documentation: Associated console features (such as Model Square and Model Discovery) and the official documentation will also be retired.

Actions

  1. Go to the Singapore region's Model Observation page to check if your account is using any models scheduled for sunset.

    To use models in the China (Beijing) region, go to the China (Beijing) region's Model Observation page.
  2. If you use an affected model, test the replacement model's business performance before switching to it.

Deprecated models

Scheduled for deprecation on September 8, 2026

For more details, see the official announcement [Model Studio] Notice: Deprecation of Some Historical Mainline Models.

Category

Model name

Deprecation time

Replacement model

Qwen-Max

qwen3.6-max-preview

September 8, 2026, 00:00:00

qwen3.7-max

qwen3-max-preview

qwen3-max

Qwen-VL

qwen3-vl-flash

qwen3.6-flash

Qwen-Coder

qwen3-coder-plus

qwen3.7-plus

Scheduled for deprecation on July 8, 2026

For more details, see the official announcement [Model Studio] Notice: Deprecation of Some Historical Snapshot Models.

Category

Model name

Deprecation time

Replacement model

Qwen-Max

qwen3-max-2026-01-23

July 8, 2026, 00:00:00

qwen3.7-max

qwen3-max-2025-09-23

Qwen-VL

qwen3-vl-8b-instruct

qwen3.6-flash

qwen3-vl-8b-thinking

qwen3-vl-flash-2026-01-22

qwen3-vl-flash-2025-10-15

qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-instruct

qwen3.7-plus

qwen3-vl-30b-a3b-thinking

qwen3-vl-32b-instruct

qwen3-vl-32b-thinking

qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-thinking

Qwen-Coder

qwen3-coder-next

qwen3.7-plus

qwen3-coder-30b-a3b-instruct

qwen3-coder-plus-2025-09-23

qwen3-coder-plus-2025-07-22

qwen3-coder-480b-a35b-instruct

Qwen3 open source edition

qwen3-8b

qwen3.6-flash

qwen3-14b

qwen3-30b-a3b

qwen3.7-plus

qwen3-30b-a3b-instruct-2507

qwen3-30b-a3b-thinking-2507

qwen3-32b

qwen3-235b-a22b

qwen3-vl-235b-a22b-instruct

qwen3-235b-a22b-instruct-2507

qwen3-235b-a22b-thinking-2507

qwen3-next-80b-a3b-instruct

qwen3-next-80b-a3b-thinking

third-party model

deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-7b

qwen3.7-plus

deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-14b

deepseek-r1-distill-qwen-32b

deepseek-v3

deepseek-v3.1

deepseek-v3.2

deepseek-v3.2-exp

deepseek-r1

deepseek-r1-0528

MiniMax-M2.1

glm-4.7

glm-4.6

Moonshot-Kimi-K2-Instruct

kimi-k2-thinking

Scheduled for deprecation on May 30, 2026

Category

Model name

Deprecation time

Replacement model

rerank

gte-rerank

May 30, 2026, 00:00:00

qwen3-rerank

Deprecated on January 30, 2026

Category

Model name

Deprecation time

Replacement model

Qwen-Plus

qwen-plus-2024-11-27

January 30, 2026, 00:00:00

qwen-plus-2025-12-01

qwen-plus-2024-11-25

qwen-plus-2024-09-19

qwen-plus-2024-08-06

Qwen-Turbo

qwen-turbo-2024-09-19

qwen-flash-2025-07-28

Qwen-VL

qwen-vl-max-2024-10-30

qwen3-vl-plus-2025-12-19

qwen-vl-max-2024-08-09

qwen-vl-plus-2024-08-09

qwen3-vl-flash-2025-10-15

Deprecated on August 20, 2025

Category

Model name

Deprecation time

Replacement model

text generation - Qwen - open source edition

qwen2-72b-instruct

August 20, 2025, 00:00:00 (UTC+08:00)

qwen-plus

qwen2-57b-a14b-instruct

qwen2-7b-instruct

qwen1.5-110b-chat

qwen1.5-72b-chat

qwen1.5-32b-chat

qwen1.5-14b-chat

qwen1.5-7b-chat