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# Qwen-Audio-3.1 brings five voice models for transcription, speech and live conversation
- URL: https://globalfeed.ai/en/qwen-audio-3-1-brings-five-voice-models-for-transcription-speech-and-live-conversation/
- Published: 2026-09-23T14:23:23.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T14:29:32.000Z
- Description: Alibaba's Qwen team has refreshed its audio model family with Qwen-Audio-3.1: five models that transcribe speech, turn text into speech and hold live conversations. The models are available by API on Qwen Cloud.
- Author: GlobalFeed Editor
- Tags: Qwen, Alibaba, audio models, speech recognition, x-Alibaba_Qwen, dil-en, elle

Alibaba's Qwen team has announced **Qwen-Audio-3.1**, the new version of its audio model family. It has five models covering four jobs in one stack: understanding, generation, conversation and creation. The models are available by API through Qwen Cloud and Alibaba Cloud Model Studio. Qwen also announced large price cuts with the release.

## Five models

- **ASR (speech to text):** Transcribes short speech in many languages. According to its model page, it adds punctuation, cleans up text and separates who is speaking in multi-person conversations. It also recognises regional Chinese dialects.
- **ASR-Next (new):** A deeper audio-understanding model. According to Qwen, it separates speakers, adds timestamps and recognises emotion and ambient sounds.
- **TTS (text to speech):** The model that turns text into natural speech, upgraded in this release.
- **TTS-Next (new):** Generates a complete audio track, not just speech. From text, timing and reference audio, it combines speech, sound effects and ambient sound in one pass. It is aimed at podcasts, multi-speaker dialogue, short video, games and film audio.
- **Realtime (live conversation):** A real-time voice model that can listen and speak at the same time. It handles interruptions, waits for the user to finish, and copes better with noise and multi-person conversations. It speaks several languages and can call tools to connect to company knowledge bases and business systems. Qwen suggests it for customer service and voice assistants.

## How to use it

The models are called with an API key from their pages on Qwen Cloud; the live conversation model runs over WebSocket. The model pages include sample code. Usage is billed, and current prices are listed on Qwen Cloud.

## Things to keep in mind

- Qwen-Audio-3.1 is offered as a cloud API. The model files cannot be downloaded or run on your own servers. Qwen3-TTS, which Qwen released earlier as an open model, is a separate series.
- According to Alibaba Cloud's docs, TTS-Next currently supports only Chinese and English.
- For a fuller picture, follow evaluations from independent researchers as well.

Sources: [Qwen announcement](https://x.com/Alibaba%5FQwen/status/2102687258990026993?ref=globalfeed.ai), [Qwen Cloud: Qwen-Audio-3.1-Realtime](https://www.qwencloud.com/models/qwen-audio-3.1-realtime-plus?ref=globalfeed.ai), [Qwen Cloud: Qwen-Audio-3.1-ASR](https://www.qwencloud.com/models/qwen-audio-3.1-asr-flash?ref=globalfeed.ai), [Alibaba Cloud: Qwen-Audio-3.1-TTS-Next](https://www.alibabacloud.com/help/en/model-studio/qwen-audio-3-1-tts-next?ref=globalfeed.ai).