# Alibaba Coding Plan

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Alibaba Coding Plan and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Cheap subscription giving generous limits for coding models like Qwen and GLM, enough for hobby projects. Caveat: the cheap tiers were withdrawn, leaving a $50 monthly plan.

## Why people recommend it

- Generous limits, rarely hits caps (4 comments): "I've not managed to get close to the limits that the cheapest plan has." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47373126)) "Even the Alibaba $6/month plan supplies a reasonable amount of API use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165757)) "Alibaba, Z.ai and MiniMax have quite generous coding plans." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47652144))
- Cheap monthly plan (2 comments): "I got lucky and got the Alibaba Coding Model lite plan, which is so cheap they got rid of it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47540890)) "Even the Alibaba $6/month plan supplies a reasonable amount of API use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50165757))

## What people warn about

- Cheap tiers withdrawn or discontinued (2 comments): "hence Alibaba killing the Lite plan and not letting people sign up to their Pro one either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47801784)) "they killed it entirely after two months haha, too cheap obviously" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47800457))
- Only $50 tier, too expensive (2 comments): "Checked the price for the alibaba coding plan and it's a single tier pricing with $50/month." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47789750)) "Alibaba's only coding plan today is $50/mo, too rich for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47544397))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Z.ai GLM Coding Subscription](https://hackerapproved.com/p/z-ai.md): 68 recommend
- [Cerebras Code](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cerebras-code.md): 28 recommend
- [MiniMax Coding Plan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/minimax-coding-plan.md): 8 recommend
- [Kimi coding plan](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kimi-coding-plan.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Alibaba Coding Plan", https://hackerapproved.com/p/alibaba-coding-plan/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).