YandexGPT or Qwen: which to choose for Russian
The catalog lists both as supporting Russian, but they are built very differently. YandexGPT and AliceAI were trained from scratch around the Russian language and local context and suit companies that must keep data inside Russia; however, AliceAI-Foundation 80B-A3B is a base model with no instruct version, so you fine-tune it yourself, and licensing varies: Apache 2.0 for YaLM-100B and AliceAI-Foundation, a Yandex agreement for YandexGPT-5-Lite. Qwen installs with one Ollama command, runs on a CPU and offers sizes from 0.6B, though the larger Qwen3.8 models have their own license. Yandex shipped more recently: September 2026 against August 2026 for Qwen.
Comparison based on catalog data
| Parameter | YandexGPT / AliceAI | Qwen |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Text | Text, Image + text |
| Developer | Yandex, Russia | Alibaba, China |
| Releases | Jun 2022 – Sep 2026 | Aug 2023 – Aug 2026 |
| Sizes | 8B – 100B | 0,6B – 2,4T-A95B |
| Hardware | Laptop, 1 GPU, Cluster | Laptop, 1 GPU, Cluster |
| Commercial use | Commercial use with conditions | Commercial use with conditions |
| License | YaLM-100B and AliceAI-Foundation-80B-A3B-Base: Apache 2.0; AliceAI-T5 states no license on its model card; YandexGPT-5-Lite: Yandex's own license agreement, commercial use on its terms | Apache 2.0 (most versions); the larger Qwen3.8 models have their own license |
| Russian | Supported | Supported |
| Ollama | No | Yes |
| Without GPU | No | Yes |
| Tasks |
|
|
Choose YandexGPT / AliceAI if
- Data has to stay in Russia and the model should know the local context
- You are ready to fine-tune a base model for your own industry
- Media and retail work: Russian copy, emails and customer replies
Choose Qwen if
- You want a one-command Ollama install, which YandexGPT does not offer
- No GPU on hand: Qwen runs on a CPU, YandexGPT does not
- You need a ready instruct model without a fine-tuning stage
Other comparisons
- Qwen or GigaChat: which to choose for business
- Qwen or Llama: which to choose for business
- GigaChat or YandexGPT: which to choose for business
- DeepSeek or Qwen: which to choose for business
- gpt-oss or Qwen: which one to run on your own server
- Mistral or Qwen: which to choose for business
- GLM or Qwen: which to choose for agents and documents
- Gemma or Llama: which to choose for business
- Mistral or Llama: which to choose for business
- Llama or DeepSeek: which to run inside your own perimeter
- Gemma or Phi: small models for modest hardware
- T-Pro or GigaChat: which one for a Russian company
Need a model for your task?
An open model can run on your own server: data stays in-house, there is no per-request fee, and the model can be fine-tuned on your documents.
- SelectThe model and size for your task and hardware budget
- DeployOn your server or in a closed network, with an API
- Fine-tuneOn your data, or connect a knowledge base
- IntegrateInto your CRM, ERP, bot, website or team chat