How to Use Qwen (Alibaba): Qwen Chat and Local Install

Option 1 — Qwen Chat on the web

1. 1

   Open Qwen Chat

   Go to chat.qwen.ai (the official Qwen Chat site).

2. 2

   Sign in

   Create an account or sign in with a supported account.

3. 3

   Pick a model

   Choose a model from the model menu. Larger models give stronger answers; some are specialised for coding or images.

4. 4

   Use the extra modes

   Turn on thinking / reasoning for hard problems, web search for recent information, and upload images or documents where supported.

Option 2 — Run Qwen locally with Ollama

Qwen is one of the best families for local use because it comes in many sizes. Small sizes (such as 0.6b–4b) run on almost any laptop; mid sizes (7b–14b) suit 16–32 GB RAM; large sizes need strong hardware.

1. 1

   Install Ollama

   Download from ollama.com and install it for Windows, macOS or Linux.

2. 2

   Open a terminal

   PowerShell / Command Prompt on Windows, Terminal on Mac or Linux.

3. 3

   Run Qwen

   Type: ollama run qwen3 to download and chat with the default size. For a specific size, add a tag, e.g. ollama run qwen3:4b for a light laptop or ollama run qwen3:14b for a stronger machine. Check the Ollama model library for the latest Qwen versions and tags.

4. 4

   Try a coding model

   Qwen also has coding-focused versions in the Ollama library (search “qwen coder”) that work with code editors and local coding assistants.

Option 3 — LM Studio

1. 1

   Install LM Studio

   Download from lmstudio.ai.

2. 2

   Search “qwen”

   Choose a version marked as fitting your computer’s memory.

3. 3

   Load and chat

   Load the model in the Chat tab. You can also start a local server so other apps can use it.

Which size should I pick?

• 8 GB RAM, no graphics card: 1.7b–4b sizes.
• 16 GB RAM: 4b–8b sizes.
• 32 GB RAM or a graphics card with lots of memory: 14b and above.
• If answers are slow, go one size smaller; if they are weak, go one size larger.