China’s Singles’ Day has a new bestseller this year, and you can’t hold it in your hand. In 2026, prepaid AI subscriptions and AI token packs are being sold next to iPhones, Xiaomi phones, and AI laptops, with the same coupons, countdowns, and livestream hype.
The clearest sign came on the night of November 2. China’s “Lipstick King”, Li Jiaqi (also known as Austin Li), sold 100,000 monthly memberships of Alibaba’s QwenWork office AI service in about 30 minutes on Taobao Live, according to Alibaba via Reuters. It was his first time selling AI products.
Reuters calls it the first Singles’ Day sale where AI token packages are a significant consumer category. Here is what is being sold, who is selling it, how much it costs, and what it could mean for shoppers outside China, including Nigeria.
From lipstick to AI tokens: the Li Jiaqi livestream
Li Jiaqi built his fame selling lipstick by the tens of thousands. On November 2, he sold computing credits instead.
He was joined on the stream by Chen Yusen, a vice president at Alibaba Group and CEO of QwenWork, Alibaba’s AI office assistant. The broadcast showcased QwenWork token plans alongside AI-enabled laptops and workplace devices, Reuters reported.
The numbers Alibaba shared:
- 100,000 monthly memberships sold in about half an hour
- About 2 trillion AI tokens of usage bundled into those memberships
- More than 10 million views on the livestream
According to the Reuters report, Li asked whether AI could build a digital avatar of him to chat with fans around the clock. Chen replied that AI could not replace Li, but could take over everyday tasks so users have more time for family.
What is an AI token subscription?
An AI token is a small unit of text that an AI model reads or writes, roughly a word or part of a word. Every question you ask a chatbot, and every answer it gives, uses up tokens.
A token pack or token plan is prepaid AI usage. Think of it like buying airtime or a data bundle. You pay upfront, get an allowance, and spend it as you use the service.
Until recently, buying tokens in China was a developer’s job. It meant API keys, consoles, and usage dashboards. On Tmall, it now looks like any other purchase: pick a monthly card, annual card, or auto-renewing plan, pay, and log in with one click, according to this report from IT Times via 36KR.
Tmall’s 3C digital boss, Si Dengyu, said the aim is to make buying tokens as easy as topping up a phone or buying a video membership. He expects the buyers to spread from tech fans to office workers, and then to ordinary consumers.
Inside Tmall’s AI Token Center and JD.com’s token Section
Both of China’s biggest shopping platforms now sell AI the way they sell phones in branded stores, with festival discounts.
Tmall (Alibaba): Tmall opened its token recharge center on September 3, and Zhipu opened its first official Tmall flagship store a day earlier. MiniMax followed with its own flagship store on October 13. For Singles’ Day, Tmall’s AI Token Center offers consumer packages from Alibaba Cloud, MiniMax, Moonshot AI and Z.AI, Reuters reported. IT Times adds Qoder and StepFun to the list.
At an October 15 briefing, Tmall president Liu Bo said Alibaba would package tokens into custom bundles for students, researchers and small teams.
JD.com: JD has launched its own AI token section, featuring services from DeepSeek, Z.AI and ByteDance’s Volcano Engine, according to Reuters.
Reported discounts range from 20% to 50%. The Qwen AI Lite monthly card, which usually goes for ¥60, is discounted by 35% to ¥39, while the QwenWork Standard Edition, which usually goes for ¥257, is discounted by 20% to ¥197.99 during the 11.11 Sale.
Productivity software is the real product
Tokens are the currency, but shoppers are really buying work software. Most of the 2026 Singles’ Day AI deals are pitched at office work and study, not chat for fun.
- QwenWork: Alibaba’s AI office assistant, the star of the Li Jiaqi stream. Alibaba also plans to build it into Taobao and Tmall merchants’ daily operations from 2027, Liu Bo said at the October briefing.
- Qoder: An AI coding tool sold at a discount in the token store, aimed at developers.
- AI voice note-takers: DingTalk A1 and QwenNote A2 cards were sold on Li’s stream. They summarise meetings and translate across languages, pitched at meetings, client visits and lectures.
- Study devices: The QwenNote Eva desktop robot targets students, with spoken English practice, learning reports and posture reminders.
Omdia chief analyst Lian Jye Su told Reuters that
“Chinese consumers are now very accustomed to using AI productivity tools.”
He added that heavy users can run out of credits, so stocking up during a sale is a reasonable move.
AI-enabled Computers: Hardware with Tokens in the Box
AI PCs are the hardware half of this story. Sales of AI PC laptops on Alibaba jumped more than 300% year on year in the first hour of the main Singles’ Day checkout window, Reuters reported. That window opened on Tmall at 8 p.m. on October 20.
Tmall lists more than 50 AI PCs and over 100 AI hardware products for the festival, according to Guangzhou Daily, as summarised by Marketing China.
The interesting part is the bundling. Three laptops on Li Jiaqi’s stream, the Laiku Air, MACHENIKE Light 16S Youth Edition and Lenovo Zhaoyang Yue Plus, came with QwenWork pre-installed and up to three months of free membership.
Under Tmall’s QwenWork AI computer programme, 70 hardware models with the software built in are launching this year.
Why bundle? A laptop is easy to understand; a trillion tokens is not. Putting the subscription inside the box lowers the barrier for first-time buyers. For sellers, it turns a one-off laptop sale into a starting point for monthly subscription revenue, Tmall’s Si Dengyu suggested.
Smartphones and laptops still anchor Singles’ Day
AI subscriptions are the new entrant, but phones and computers remain the festival’s heavyweights. In 2025, phones and digital products took 14.6% of marketplace sales, second only to home appliances, according to Syntun data cited by Marketing China.
Early 2026 signals from Tmall’s October 20 opening, as reported by East Money, Caijing and 36Kr, show that Phones in China’s state trade-in subsidy scheme sold more than 9x their earlier level, 3C digital products in the scheme rose more than 4x, and Apple’s new iPhones grew 400%.
AI is creeping into the phone category too. At last year’s festival, JD.com said sales of large-screen AI phones rose 150% and AI tablets 200%. Apple finished first in JD’s 2025 phone rankings, with Xiaomi the top Chinese brand.
In 2026, these devices now sell AI separately. As IT Times notes, AI phones and AI PCs lean on cloud computing for heavy tasks even with a strong local chip, so a token plan is the natural add-on to the hardware.
Why is there an AI Token Boom in China?
Token packs reached the shopping cart because AI use in China has exploded. Liu Liehong, head of China’s National Data Administration, said daily token use passed 140 trillion in March 2026, up from about 100 billion in early 2024.
The user base is also mainstream now. A China Internet Network Information Center report found generative AI users in China passed 700 million in the first half of 2026, a penetration rate above 50%, IT Times reported.
AI agents and coding tools are the main driver. A single agent task can burn far more tokens than a simple chat, and Caixin reported that token demand has been rising faster than many executives expected, sparking a price and capacity contest across China’s AI industry.
For Alibaba, there is also a retail goal. Liu Bo wants AI to widen what young shoppers buy, from about 15 product categories a year to 25–30. A whole new category like AI tokens helps that target.
The risks for buyers and sellers
Prepaid AI is not like prepaid airtime. AI products change fast, and that cuts both ways.
For buyers: Omdia’s Su warned that rapid change in AI products could make shoppers wary of prepaying for a service that may be replaced or retired. Long expiry periods encourage stockpiling, but a bigger pack is only a bargain if the service is still worth using months later.
For sellers: Selling tokens at a locked price is a bet that the cost of running the models, mainly GPU time and electricity, falls just as fast. If it doesn’t, margins get squeezed.
For the category: Heavily discounted memberships are easy to sell. Turning those users into full-price subscribers is the harder job, as Jing Daily points out.
What does this mean for the rest of us?
These token packs are built for China’s market and Chinese accounts, so most Nigerian and international buyers won’t be shopping Tmall’s AI Token Center directly. But the trend is worth watching, because Singles’ Day often previews what global retail does next.
So, don’t be surprised if you see a couple of AI bundled deals during Black Friday sales.
Singles’ Day 2026 peaks on November 11. JD’s sale opened on October 12 and Tmall’s on October 15, with Tmall’s festival running to November 13. The first full sales tallies for AI token plans will test whether this category has staying power.
Singles’ Day AI Deals FAQ
What are AI tokens on Singles’ Day? They are prepaid AI usage allowances, sold as monthly cards, annual cards, or subscription plans. Each token is a small chunk of text an AI model processes.
Who sold AI tokens on Singles’ Day 2026? Alibaba’s Tmall (via its AI Token Center) and JD.com (via an AI token section). Brands include Alibaba Cloud, QwenWork, Qoder, MiniMax, Moonshot AI, Z.AI, Zhipu, StepFun, DeepSeek, and ByteDance’s Volcano Engine.
How many QwenWork memberships did Li Jiaqi sell? About 100,000 monthly memberships in roughly 30 minutes on November 2, 2026, equal to about 2 trillion tokens, according to Alibaba.
Did AI laptops sell well on Singles’ Day 2026? Yes. Alibaba said AI PC laptop sales rose more than 300% year on year in the first hour of the main checkout window.
When is Singles’ Day 2026? The main day is November 11, 2026. Sales started in mid-October on most platforms.
Can Nigerians buy these AI token deals? They are designed for Chinese users and platforms. Nigerians are more likely to see the trend arrive as AI subscription bundles on laptops and phones during Black Friday.
