Alibaba brings advanced image editing to AI with Qwen-Image-Edit

Chinese tech giant Alibaba launched a free, open-source image editing tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to perform professional-level photo edits with simple text commands, directly challenging Adobe Photoshop’s grip on the professional design market.

Qwen-Image-Edit went live on August 18 across multiple platforms, including Hugging Face and GitHub. The tool allows users to modify images by typing instructions like “make the man wearing a tuxedo” or “remove the stray hair.”

Built on Alibaba’s 20-billion-parameter foundation model, the system handles both major image overhauls and precise touch-ups. Users can rotate objects 180 degrees, change artistic styles, or make surgical edits without affecting surrounding areas.

“It can remove a strand of hair, very delicate image modification,” said Junyang Lin, a Qwen Team researcher, on social media platform X.

The tool excels at editing text within images in both English and Chinese. This addresses a major weakness in most AI image generators, which often struggle with spelling and typography. Qwen-Image-Edit preserves original fonts, sizes, and styles when making text changes.

Source: Replicate/Qwen

Alibaba released Qwen-Image-Edit under an Apache 2.0 license, meaning companies can download and use it commercially without fees. This contrasts sharply with Adobe’s subscription model.

The tool operates through two editing modes. Semantic editing changes an image’s overall meaning or style while keeping the subject recognizable. Appearance editing makes precise local changes while leaving most of the image untouched.

Testing shows the system can generate new viewpoints of objects, add realistic reflections to signs, and correct individual characters in Chinese calligraphy through step-by-step refinement.

Free users on Qwen Chat can perform about eight editing jobs every 12 hours. The paid API costs $0.045 per image after an initial 100 free images.

Alibaba’s release follows recent AI editing advances from competitors. Adobe recently added new Firefly-powered features to Photoshop, while Black Forest Labs launched Flux.1 Context for combined generation and editing.

This release also continues Alibaba’s push into open-source AI development. The company recently launched models for reasoning, coding, and video creation, building a complete development toolkit for creators.

Qwen-Image-Edit achieved state-of-the-art performance on public editing benchmarks, though Alibaba hasn’t shared specific performance numbers. The model ranks third among API providers in human evaluations on AI Arena.

The release signals growing competition in AI-powered creative tools as companies race to democratize professional-grade software through free, accessible alternatives.