How to Run Qwen3-Coder With Claude Code on Windows

Qwen3-Coder is one of the better budget choices for agentic work — tuned for tool calling and capable of very large context windows, which makes it shine on big repositories. It runs on Alibaba’s DashScope platform, and since that’s OpenAI-compatible rather than Anthropic-compatible, the clean way to use it with Claude Code is through Claude Code Router.

This is the Windows setup: key, router config, model choice, and the pricing options (including Alibaba’s coding plan). For the router itself, see Claude Code Router setup on Windows.

Step 1: Get a DashScope API key#

Sign up for Alibaba Cloud Model Studio and create an API key for DashScope. Use the international endpoint (Singapore region) unless you’re in mainland China.

Step 2: Install Claude Code and the router#

npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
npm install -g @musistudio/claude-code-router

On Windows, WSL gives the smoother shell — see the WSL install guide.

Step 3: Add Qwen to the router config#

Edit ~/.claude-code-router/config.json (on Windows, C:\Users\YourName\.claude-code-router\config.json):

{
  "Providers": [
    {
      "name": "dashscope",
      "api_base_url": "https://dashscope-intl.aliyuncs.com/compatible-mode/v1/chat/completions",
      "api_key": "$DASHSCOPE_API_KEY",
      "models": ["qwen3-coder-plus"],
      "transformer": {
        "use": [["maxtoken", { "max_tokens": 65536 }], "enhancetool"]
      }
    }
  ],
  "Router": {
    "default": "dashscope,qwen3-coder-plus",
    "longContext": "dashscope,qwen3-coder-plus",
    "longContextThreshold": 200000
  }
}

The maxtoken and enhancetool transformers keep token limits and tool calls reliable with Qwen. Export the key and run:

export DASHSCOPE_API_KEY="sk-your-key"
ccr code

Step 4: Pick the model#

For agentic coding in Claude Code, qwen3-coder-plus is the natural default. Confirm current model IDs on Model Studio, as they update with releases.

Pricing and the coding plan#

Qwen offers two routes, and you can mix them:

• Pay-per-token on DashScope, with a cache-hit discount on repeated input (commonly around 75% off the cached portion) — good for agentic sessions that reuse context.
• Alibaba Coding Plan — a flat subscription (around $50/month for roughly 90,000 requests) that also includes select third-party models like Kimi, GLM, and MiniMax. Better for heavy daily use.

See Alibaba Coding Plan vs pay-per-token for which fits your volume.

Troubleshooting#

• Token-limit errors — keep the maxtoken transformer; some defaults exceed what the endpoint accepts.
• Tool calls misbehaving — the enhancetool transformer hardens them.
• Auth errors — DASHSCOPE_API_KEY not set, or you used the mainland endpoint instead of dashscope-intl.
• Config not applied — run ccr restart after editing.

Wrapping up#

Running Qwen3-Coder with Claude Code means routing through Claude Code Router to Alibaba’s DashScope: add the dashscope provider with the international /compatible-mode/v1 endpoint, the maxtoken and enhancetool transformers, and qwen3-coder-plus. Lean on its big context window for large repos, and choose between pay-per-token and the coding plan based on volume.

For other tools, see Qwen3-Coder with Codex CLI and Qwen Code CLI on Windows.