Qwen Code vs Roo Code: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of Qwen Code and Roo Code across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of Qwen Code and Roo Code across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
Either way, you pay for the model calls. A median coding-agent day on our gateway is 95 requests and 8.6 million tokens. The table prices every step at one model’s rate.
Both run on Standard Compute, where each step goes to the cheapest model that can do it: routine steps go to efficient open models, hard ones to frontier models such as Claude Fable 5.1 or GPT-6 Astra.
| Model | Typical day | Busy day |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $7.34 | $59.10 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $3.67 | $29.55 |
| GPT-6 Luna | $0.23 | $2.43 |
Fixed monthly plans from $19. Eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute first, no card. Trial terms
Pick a winner in each category. You can change your vote anytime.
Qwen CodeRoo CodeChoose Qwen Code if you are developers who want a free, Claude Code-style terminal agent that runs Qwen models next to any other provider. Choose Roo Code if you are existing Roo users planning a move: ZooCode keeps the modes, Cline is the maintained original.
In our editorial scoring, Qwen Code leads in 4 of six categories (reliability, speed, value and ease of use), while Roo Code leads in 1 (autonomy). On price, Qwen Code runs free (apache 2.0), bring your own provider and is open source; Roo Code runs discontinued (shut down may 2026) and is open source.
What it costs to run Qwen Code or Roo Code
Best API for Qwen Code →
4 options compared, with prices and limits
Best API for Roo Code →
5 options compared, with prices and limits
Standard Compute sends each step to the cheapest model that can do it, on providers we vet for price, uptime and speed. Plans start at $19 a month, and eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute with no card. Choose your agent below to connect.
Qwen Code is Alibaba's Qwen team's open-source coding agent. It was originally based on Gemini CLI v0.8.2, stopped syncing with upstream at v0.1 and has been developed on its own since, with frequent releases (v0.25.2 on October 15, 2026). It ships subagents, agent teams, skills, hooks, MCP, plan mode, LSP and git worktrees, plus VS Code, JetBrains and Zed plugins, a desktop app and Telegram, DingTalk, WeChat and Feishu channels. Unlike Gemini CLI it speaks the OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini APIs, so any compatible provider works through modelProviders in ~/.qwen/settings.json. The free Qwen OAuth tier ended on April 15, 2026: the tool is still free, and the models come from Alibaba's Coding Plan or Token Plan, a built-in third-party provider, a local model or a custom provider.
Roo Code was shut down on May 15, 2026: its GitHub repo is archived, the final release was 3.54.0, and roocode.com now redirects to Roomote, a separate self-hosted coding teammate from the same team. The README points users to ZooCode, a community-maintained fork, or back to Cline, the agent Roo was forked from. In its time Roo was a power-user favourite for its modes, switchable personas like Architect (plan), Code (build), and Debug (fix) plus fully custom modes with their own prompts and tool permissions, along with auto-approval, MCP servers, and any OpenAI-compatible provider.
Qwen Code and Roo Code both run on Standard Compute
