What each one says about the other
These sentences were written about each tool on its own, before this page existed, and each names the other tool by name. They are quoted, not composed.
Qwen Code on Goose · not for
A developer who chose Qwen Code because it was free should now price the Alibaba ModelStudio Coding Plan, or move to goose, which runs a local Ollama model at no per-token cost.
“Cost & quota : the free tier has been discontinued as of 2026-04-15.”
Goose and Qwen Code, fact by fact
| Fact | Goose | Qwen Code |
|---|---|---|
| StarsGoose has 26,703 more stars (1.9×). | 55,064Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 28,361Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Newest commitBoth committed on the same day. | 7 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 | 8 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| ContributorsGoose has 33 more contributors (1.1×). | 453Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 420Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| LicenseBoth ship under Apache-2.0. | Apache-2.0Verified 8 Oct 2026 | Apache-2.0Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Latest stable releaseQwen Code released 2 days more recently. | v1.53.0published 2 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 | sdk-typescript-v0.1.18published 5 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| npm downloads | not tracked for Goose | 104,819 a week@qwen-code/qwen-codeVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Homebrew installs | not tracked for Goose | 2,783 in 30 daysqwen-codeVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Repository | aaif-goose/gooseRustVerified 8 Oct 2026 | QwenLM/qwen-codeTypeScriptVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
What we know about Goose
goose is the only agent in this set governed by a foundation rather than a vendor, and it can borrow an existing Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription over the Agent Client Protocol instead of an API key.
“goose is part of the [Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)](https://aaif.io/) at the Linux Foundation.”
Automate work that is not coding — research, writing, data analysis — on the same machine and the same agent, through the desktop app, the CLI or the API.
“goose is a general-purpose AI agent that runs on your machine. Not just for code — use it for research, writing, automation, data analysis, or anything you need to get done.”
Wire the agent into tools you already run: goose connects to 70+ extensions over the Model Context Protocol.
“Connect to 70+ extensions via the [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) open standard.”
Ship one configuration to a whole team: a custom distribution bundles the providers, extensions and branding before anybody installs it.
“[Custom Distributions](https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/blob/main/CUSTOM_DISTROS.md) — build your own goose distro with preconfigured providers, extensions, and branding”
Model choice is not free: goose leans on tool calling, so a weak or local model degrades it, and the vendor names Claude 4 as the model it works best with.
“goose relies heavily on tool calling capabilities and currently works best with Claude 4 models.”
Two OpenAI reasoning models do not run at all, because they cannot call tools.
“o1-mini and o1-preview are not supported because goose uses tool calling.”
Unattended scheduling is broken in 1.45.0: headless runs die at the first tool call and a recipe's own goose_mode is ignored.
“Scheduler unusable for unattended recipes on 1.45.0: headless runs die at first tool call, recipe-level goose_mode is silently ignored, an interrupted run-now permanently wedges the job, and spawned sessions get no schedule_id”
A developer who wants the widest model catalogue in a terminal should pick OpenCode, which reaches 75+ providers from one config file.
“OpenCode uses the AI SDK and Models.dev to support 75+ LLM providers and it supports running local models.”
What Goose costs
goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key.
“Access GPT-5 Codex models optimized for code generation and understanding. Requires a ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscription.”
What we know about Qwen Code
Qwen Code binds the local agent to Telegram, DingTalk, WeChat or Feishu with one command, `qwen channel`, and ships TypeScript, Python and Java SDKs beside the CLI.
“- **Beyond the terminal** — IDE plugins, Desktop app, daemon mode, SDKs, and IM bots (Telegram / DingTalk / WeChat / Feishu).”
Run the agent from a group chat your team already uses, with `qwen channel`.
“| **IM Bot** | `qwen channel` | Connect to Telegram, DingTalk, WeChat, or Feishu |”
Embed the agent in your own program through the TypeScript, Python or Java SDK instead of shelling out to a CLI.
“| **SDK** | — | [TypeScript](./packages/sdk-typescript/README.md), [Python](./packages/sdk-python/README.md), [Java](./packages/sdk-java/qwencode/README.md) |”
Batch a repository-wide edit in CI with `qwen -p "..."`, which runs without the terminal UI.
“| **Headless** | `qwen -p "..."` | Scripts, CI/CD, batch processing — no UI |”
Qwen Code is no longer free: the Qwen OAuth free tier was discontinued on 2026-04-15, and requests on an old token are now rejected.
“The Qwen OAuth free tier was discontinued on 2026-04-15. Existing cached tokens may continue working briefly, but new requests will be rejected.”
You cannot finish sign-in on a server: OAuth needs a browser, which CI, SSH and container sessions do not have.
“In non-interactive or headless environments (e.g., CI, SSH, containers), you typically cannot complete the OAuth browser login flow.”
Image input regressed in the shipping line: a crash on image load since 0.21.2 is open, and the current release is v0.21.14.
“[Regression] Qwen code crashes on image load since 0.21.2”
A developer who chose Qwen Code because it was free should now price the Alibaba ModelStudio Coding Plan, or move to goose, which runs a local Ollama model at no per-token cost.
“Cost & quota : the free tier has been discontinued as of 2026-04-15.”
What Qwen Code costs
The free tier is gone as of 2026-04-15; the vendor's recommended replacement is the Alibaba ModelStudio Coding Plan, whose weekly quota is priced on Alibaba's own page, which I did not read today.
“Alibaba ModelStudio : official recommended setup. Opens a sub-menu with Coding Plan (for individual developers · weekly quota included), Token Plan (for teams and companies · usage-based billing with a dedicated endpoint), or Standard API Key (connect with an existing ModelStudio API key).”
Questions people ask
- Are Goose and Qwen Code still maintained?
- Goose committed to aaif-goose/goose (main) on 7 Oct 2026. Qwen Code committed to QwenLM/qwen-code (main) on 8 Oct 2026. Both readings come from the default branch of each repository, on the date shown beside them.
- What do Goose and Qwen Code cost?
- Goose: goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key. Qwen Code: The free tier is gone as of 2026-04-15; the vendor's recommended replacement is the Alibaba ModelStudio Coding Plan, whose weekly quota is priced on Alibaba's own page, which I did not read today. Every figure here is quoted from the vendor's own page and linked beside the claim.
- Is Goose or Qwen Code open source?
- Goose's repository aaif-goose/goose reports the Apache-2.0 licence. Qwen Code's repository QwenLM/qwen-code reports the Apache-2.0 licence. We read the licence GitHub reports for the repository, which is not the same question as whether the hosted product is free.
How we check this page
- Machine facts. Stars, contributors, the newest commit on the default branch, the licence GitHub reports and the latest stable release come from the GitHub API, and download counts from npm, PyPI, Homebrew and the VS Code Marketplace. Each value carries the day it was last confirmed, never the day this page was built. The line under each label is arithmetic on those two values.
- Judgments. Every claim about what a tool suits, what it is bad at and what it costs is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. Where there is no link, we wrote no claim.
- Index status. Both Goose and Qwen Code carry claims we read, quoted and linked. So this page is offered to search engines.
Related comparisons
Pairs we can answer for come first.
