Expensive is not as good as right.

Qwen Office members now enjoy a limited-time free trial of the Economy model.

On August 18, Qwen Office’s public beta celebrated its second anniversary. Starting today, members can use the Economy model an unlimited number of times during this promotional period.

Over the past two weeks, the most frequent question we’ve received hasn’t been “Is it easy to use?” but rather a more practical one: “With so many models available on Qwen Office, which one should I choose?”

Currently, Qwen Office offers three model tiers: Economy, Basic, and Advanced, while also continuously introducing cutting-edge models like Qwen3.8-Max.

Each tier has its own purpose, yet many users still wonder: Will the Economy model be insufficient for simple tasks? Is the Advanced model necessary for complex projects? And in what scenarios is the Basic model the most cost-effective?

Rather than discussing theory, let’s put these models to the test.

We designed three levels of task instructions—single-step output, multi-condition reasoning, and long-process content generation—and assigned them to each model to observe their performance in terms of execution time, token consumption, and quality of results.

This test does not include the latest frontier models that are still under development.

Now, let’s move on to the three rounds of testing.

L1 Simple Task: Table Format Conversion

This is a typical “data transfer” task—converting data from one format to another while adhering to specific formatting requirements. Although relatively easy, it effectively tests the model’s ability to parse files and call tools.

All three models completed the task successfully, with the Economy model responding faster and consuming fewer tokens.

In summary: For everyday light tasks, the Economy model is perfectly adequate.

L2 Multi-Constrained Task: Staff Scheduling

The difficulty level increases here. The model must consider multiple factors simultaneously, including employee skills, working hour limits, project schedules, and delivery order, then neatly populate the results into an AI table—the key isn’t whether it can do it, but whether it can make reasonable decisions under multiple constraints.

Differences begin to emerge. The Basic and Advanced models respond faster and deliver higher-quality results; the Economy model saves tokens but struggles slightly with logical reasoning. Overall, the Basic model offers the best value.

In summary: For everyday complex tasks, the Basic model strikes the perfect balance between cost and performance.

L3 Long-Process Output: HTML Frontend Generation

Combining eight conditions—collapsible navigation, KPI cards, line charts, bar graphs, and more—the goal is to produce a fully functional frontend page. This type of task closely mirrors real-world development scenarios, where templates aren’t enough; the model must independently design the architecture and implement the details.

Faced with high complexity and long reasoning chains, the Advanced model outperforms the other two, achieving the best balance between speed, final quality, and token consumption.

In summary: For advanced development or long workflows, the Advanced model delivers both speed and quality.

Test Conclusion: It’s Not About Price, But Fit

After completing all three rounds of testing, we’ve reached a clear conclusion.

The core principle for choosing a model is simple:

For light, everyday tasks, the Economy model suffices.

For moderately complex work, the Basic model offers the best value.

For high-level, long-running tasks, the Advanced model is the right choice.