# Alibaba Qwen3 8B API

> Qwen3 8B is a compact dense model in Alibaba's open-weight Qwen3 family, released in April 2025 with 8.2 billion parameters. Like its siblings, it switches between a thinking mode for math, coding and logical reasoning and a non-thinking mode for efficient dialogue, with tool use in both modes and coverage of more than 100 languages and dialects. Choose it for lightweight text reasoning and chat where Qwen3 32B is more than the task needs.

Source: https://www.sandbase.ai/models/alibaba/qwen3-8b
API reference: https://www.sandbase.ai/models/alibaba/qwen3-8b/docs

## Facts

- Provider: Alibaba
- Type: Language model
- Model ID: `alibaba/qwen3-8b`
- Price: $0.18 per 1M input tokens, $0.70 per 1M output tokens
- Context window: 131.1K tokens, up to 8.2K output tokens
- Capabilities: chat, reasoning, structured output, function calling
- Billing: pay per use from one SandBase balance; no provider account or subscription needed

## Call it

- Chat Completions API: `POST https://api.sandbase.ai/v1/chat/completions`

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.sandbase.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SANDBASE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "model": "alibaba/qwen3-8b",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Hello"
    }
  ],
  "max_tokens": 2048
}'
```

## FAQ

### How do I call Alibaba Qwen3 8B through SandBase?

Create a SandBase API key, then send requests with the model ID "alibaba/qwen3-8b" to Chat Completions API (/v1/chat/completions) at https://api.sandbase.ai. The request examples on this page show the exact payload.

### How much does Alibaba Qwen3 8B cost?

$0.18 per 1M input tokens and $0.70 per 1M output tokens, billed per request from your SandBase balance. Discounts, when available, are shown in the pricing on this page.

### What is the context window of Alibaba Qwen3 8B?

131.1K tokens of context, with up to 8.2K output tokens per response.

### How does Alibaba Qwen3 8B score on benchmarks?

Alibaba Qwen3 8B scores 7.3 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (v4.3), ranking #81 of 83 models on SandBase; Coding Index 9.0, Agentic Index 0.8. Source: Artificial Analysis, measured as Qwen3 8B (Reasoning).

### Which features does Alibaba Qwen3 8B support?

Alibaba Qwen3 8B supports reasoning, function calling, structured output. See Specifications above for the full list.

### Do I need a separate Alibaba account?

No. One SandBase API key and balance gives you access to Alibaba Qwen3 8B and the other models in the catalog; you do not need to sign up with Alibaba separately.