Qarachar Noyan (c.1166 – 1243/44 or 1255/56), also spelt Karachar, was a Mongol military commander under Genghis Khan as well as a paternal ancestor of Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire.

Though there is little mention of him in early sources, where he is only described as a military official, the link Qarachar provided between the Mongol Empire and the Timurid dynasty was paramount to the latter's foundational history. His role and that of his relations were thus heavily expanded and potentially mythologised by Timurid court historians, who portrayed him as a hereditary supreme commander and administrator endowed with a unique intimacy with the ruling clan. This disparity in information results in the actual details regarding his life and position becoming matters of dispute among modern academics.

Qarachar features very little in the histories contemporary to his lifetime. In The Secret History of the Mongols, he is mentioned alongside his father, Suqu Sechen ("the Sage"), as having attended the assembly which proclaimed Genghis Khan (then called Temüjin) ruler of the Mongols in 1190. Having belonged to the Mongol Barlas tribe, the two acted as one of the delegations representing the group at the event. The Secret History also states that in 1206, Qarachar was given command of a thousand by the emperor. According to the thirteenth century historian Juvayni, Qarachar later had a base in Taloqan from which, in 1222, he marched on Merv to suppress a rebellion. By 1227, the year that Genghis died, Qarachar and his contingent had been assigned to the retinue of Genghis Khan's second son Chagatai, a transfer which is also mentioned in the works of Rashid-al-Din Hamadani.

Later Timurid historians, such as Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi in his Zafarnama and Hafiz-i Abru in his Majma and Zubdat, greatly elaborated on the origins of the dynasty, including on the life and background of Qarachar. In such works, his ancestry (which is never clarified in earlier accounts) is said to link to that of Genghis Khan. His paternal grandfather was stated to be Erdemchu Barlas, son of Qachuli, himself a son of Tumanay Khan, Genghis Khan's great-great-grandfather. This relationship is expressed in other works as well as engraved on Timur's cenotaph and tombstone in the Gur-e-Amir, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Qarachar's father Suqu Sechen was depicted as having been a trusted advisor of Yesugei, Genghis Khan's father, having been present at the latter's birth and foretelling the infant's future greatness. Suqu is claimed by Yazdi to have died shortly after Yesugei while their children were still young, though this would contradict The Secret History, which states that he was still alive in 1190.

Qarachar was described as being among the earliest tribal leaders to swear allegiance to Genghis Khan. He was given a command of 10,000 and advised the emperor frequently throughout his decades-long conquests. As Khan was dying, he is recounted to have summoned his sons and brothers as well as Qarachar. There, after having received their homage, he praised the wisdom of the latter and urged his sons to follow his council and commands. Genghis Khan then ordered the division of his empire among his progeny, bestowing to his second son Chagatai the lands of Transoxiana, which would later become the Chagatai Khanate. In continuation of a covenant made between their respective great-grandfathers Qachuli and Qabul, he commended this son to Qarachar's care, who was also entrusted with the administration and armies to manage on his behalf. This arrangement was formalised by the legal adoption by the nobleman of Chagatai, whose daughter Qarachar also married, so as to establish a "bond of fatherhood and sonship". It was from this marriage that Timur claimed descent.

Yazdi records that Qarachar subsequently occupied a prominent position in the Chagatai court, performing the actual duties of ruling while the Khan revelled and hunted. This arrangement is mentioned by other Timurid historians such as Hafiz-i Abru, who states that as generalissimo, he undertook matters of law, rule and custom. Natanzi in his Muntakhab further relates that after Chagatai's death in 1241, Qarachar was given command of the household under his successor Qara Hülegü. The Mu'izz al-Ansab, a genealogical work from the reign of Shah Rukh, also adds that he carried out legal decisions based on the laws set out by Genghis Khan (the Yassa).

The year of his death is disputed between accounts. Hafiz-i Abru states that Qarachar survived Chagatai by only a year, with his death occurring in 640 AH (1243/44 CE). Conversely, Yazdi narrates that he had outlived the Khan by thirteen years, dying in 652 AH (1255/56 CE) at the advanced age of eighty-nine. Depending on the source, he may have had up to nineteen sons, with his descendants forming seven of the Barlas clans of Turkestan and Transoxiana. Qarachar's position of generalissimo was bequeathed to his son Ichil (Timur's great-great-grandfather), with the office becoming hereditary among his descendants.

The first historian to question the narratives presented by Timurid histories was Constantine d'Ohsson in 1834, who stated that they were falsified, with the character of Qarachar being an invention due to an apparent lack of mention in the works of Rashid-al-Din Hamadani. This assumption was later disproved by Vasily Bartold, who discovered a comment by Hamadani regarding Qarachar. However, he was only described as being one of Chagatai's military chiefs as opposed to an all-powerful vizier, leading to an implication that his position and exploits had been greatly exaggerated. This is a view shared by Yuri Bregel, who adds that there is no evidence that Qarachar enjoyed any special power.