# Alibaba Cloud vs Dolphin

> Alibaba Cloud runs Qwen inside a hyperscale public cloud. Dolphin serves one cheap open model on a decentralized network and publishes uncensored fine-tunes.

Canonical: https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/alibaba-cloud-vs-dolphin · By The Subconscious Team · Updated October 11, 2026

## How they compare

Model Studio offers Qwen 3.8-Max with 1M context at $2 in and $6 out, plus batch, caching, a free 1M token quota per model for 90 days and EU deployment. Dolphin's API launched in October 2026 with one model, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, at $0.01 in and $0.07 out per million, served on idle consumer GPUs. Validators check outputs against a trusted copy of the model and nodes cannot log requests, but Dolphin publishes no speed, context or SLA.

Alibaba Cloud fits enterprises that need regional deployment, a full cloud and a vendor procurement will approve. Dolphin fits cheap background jobs where latency and uptime can vary, and products that need models without vendor-imposed refusals. Signup requires a crypto wallet and Telegram, which rules it out for most companies.

## What each one does

### Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud serves the Qwen model family through Model Studio, its managed AI platform. The flagship Qwen 3.8-Max takes text, image and video input with a 1M token context, function calling, structured outputs and built-in web search. International pricing is $2 in and $6 out per million tokens, with implicit cache hits at $0.25. Deployments in China and some global regions list lower, at $1.65 in and about $4.95 out, and Alibaba often runs limited-time discounts, including night-time cuts of up to 80% on Qwen 3.7-Max.

### Dolphin

Dolphin began in 2023 as Eric Hartford's series of open-source, uncensored fine-tunes, trained to drop the refusals and baked-in guidelines of their base models so that the developer sets the rules through the system prompt. Current releases include Dolphin Llama 3.1 8B and Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition, built with Venice, and the project publishes nearly 100 models on Hugging Face. It also runs a chat app, a Telegram bot and a synthetic data service that generates answers to commonly refused prompts.

## Which is best, and when

### Choose Alibaba Cloud for

- Enterprise buyers inside a full public cloud
- Multimodal Qwen 3.8-Max with 1M context
- EU and Asia regional deployment

### Choose Dolphin for

- Very cheap DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls
- Batch work that tolerates variable latency
- Models without vendor-imposed refusals

## At a glance

| Attribute | Alibaba Cloud | Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Model access | Open weights incl. Max (custom license) | Open weights, uncensored fine-tunes |
| Flagship models | Qwen 3.8-Max, Qwen 3.7-Max | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Dolphin Mistral 24B |
| Speed | ~40 tok/s on Qwen 3.8-Max | - |
| Price | $2 in, $6 out international | $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) |
| Customization | No fine-tuning on hosted Max | Own uncensored fine-tunes |
| Deployment | Model Studio on Alibaba Cloud | Decentralized serverless API |
| Long context | 1M (Qwen 3.8-Max) | - |

## FAQ

### What is the difference between Alibaba Cloud and Dolphin?

Alibaba Cloud runs Qwen inside a hyperscale public cloud. Dolphin serves one cheap open model on a decentralized network and publishes uncensored fine-tunes.

### When should I choose Alibaba Cloud over Dolphin?

Enterprise buyers inside a full public cloud; Multimodal Qwen 3.8-Max with 1M context; EU and Asia regional deployment.

### When should I choose Dolphin over Alibaba Cloud?

Very cheap DeepSeek V4.1 Flash calls; Batch work that tolerates variable latency; Models without vendor-imposed refusals.

### Is Alibaba Cloud or Dolphin cheaper?

Alibaba Cloud: $2 in, $6 out international. Dolphin: $0.01 in, $0.07 out (DeepSeek V4.1 Flash). The cheaper choice depends on the model and workload.

## Running long-horizon agents?

If your agents run past 200K tokens, compare both against Subconscious: [Subconscious vs Alibaba Cloud](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-alibaba-cloud.md), [Subconscious vs Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/compare/subconscious-vs-dolphin.md).

Full profiles: [Alibaba Cloud](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/alibaba-cloud.md), [Dolphin](https://www.subconscious.dev/providers/dolphin.md).