Tell HN: Qwen Free Tier Is Discontinued

I kept getting 401 'token expired' errors on my existing Qwen session. Attempting to resume it after quitting, I got:

    qwen resume                                        
    [API Error: 401 invalid access token or token expired]
    [API Error: 401 invalid access token or token expired][API Error: [API Error: 401 invalid access token or token expired]]
    An unexpected critical error occurred:
    Error: [API Error: 401 invalid access token or token expired]
        at file:///opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@qwen-code/qwen-code/cli.js:459092:19
        at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:104:5)
        at async main (file:///opt/homebrew/lib/node_modules/@qwen-code/qwen-code/cli.js:513740:5)

To attempt to refresh the token, I ran `qwen` which brought up the agent without errors. Assuming the issue to be fixed, I attempted resuming my previous session again:

    qwen resume
    Qwen OAuth free tier was discontinued on 2026-04-15. Run /auth to switch to Coding Plan, OpenRouter, Fireworks AI, or another provider.

It's official: Qwen free tier is dead. It was great while it lasted, especially with the latest 3.6 plus model.