Hunyuan Hy4 Preview vs MAI-1-preview

Tencent · China  |  Microsoft · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Pick MAI-1-preview for microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on openai or ranked in the top 15 on lm arena at launch. Choose Hunyuan Hy4 Preview if you need self-hosting or data privacy; MAI-1-preview if you want a managed API.

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent, China) and MAI-1-preview (Microsoft, US) line up two different AI ecosystems against each other — a comparison that is as much about cost philosophy and openness as raw capability. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. MAI-1-preview is microsoft's first fully in-house foundation model - a strategic break from sole reliance on OpenAI, trained on ~15,000 H100 GPUs. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

SpecHunyuan Hy4 PreviewMAI-1-preview
ProviderTencent (China) Microsoft (US)
ReleasedAugust 28, 2026 August 28, 2025
Context window1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages) 128K (~192 pages)
Price (in/out)$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens Not published
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable No — API only
Modalitiestext text, code
SWE-Bench VerifiedNot published Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published Not published

Who wins what

GPQA Diamond (92.3)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it carries the larger 1M+ tokens context.

Terminal-Bench (85.4)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and its weights are open while MAI-1-preview is API-only.

SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline — and it is the newer of the two.

Microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on OpenAI

MAI-1-preview

MAI-1-preview lists microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on OpenAI among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

Ranked in the top 15 on LM Arena at launch

MAI-1-preview

MAI-1-preview lists ranked in the top 15 on LM Arena at launch among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

Trained on roughly 15,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, a genuine internal infrastructure investment

MAI-1-preview

MAI-1-preview lists trained on roughly 15,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, a genuine internal infrastructure investment among its strengths; Hunyuan Hy4 Preview does not.

Lowest cost at scale

MAI-1-preview

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Hunyuan Hy4 Preview's $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens.

Largest single-prompt input

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Its 1M+ tokens window is about 7.8× larger than MAI-1-preview's 128K, fitting roughly 1,500 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

MAI-1-preview

At Not published it undercuts Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Larger 1M+ tokens window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; MAI-1-preview is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3)

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on openai

MAI-1-preview

That is its strongest area.

An enterprise with regional data-residency rules

MAI-1-preview or Hunyuan Hy4 Preview

Origin (China vs US) affects where data is processed and which compliance regime applies — check the provider's terms for your region.

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview: where it fits

Tencent's open-sourced (Apache 2.0) next-generation Hunyuan flagship preview, released August 28, 2026 as a 770B-parameter (49B active) MoE model that helped optimize its own training pipeline. Released August 28, 2026 by Tencent, it is built for gPQA Diamond (92.3), terminal-Bench (85.4), sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9), and large jump in long-horizon coding vs prior Hunyuan model (DeepSWE 28.0 to 64.3).

Its trade-offs are real: text-only, no native vision support, labeled a 'preview', not yet Tencent's finalized GA flagship, and sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump. At $0.834 in / $2.501 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.

MAI-1-preview: where it fits

Microsoft's first fully in-house foundation model - a strategic break from sole reliance on OpenAI, trained on ~15,000 H100 GPUs. Released August 28, 2025 by Microsoft, it is built for microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on OpenAI, ranked in the top 15 on LM Arena at launch, trained on roughly 15,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, a genuine internal infrastructure investment, and rolled into Copilot alongside OpenAI models, giving Microsoft a real second option.

Its trade-offs: a 'preview' release, not yet positioned as Microsoft's primary Copilot model, no public per-token API pricing - not sold as a standalone product, and distinct from Microsoft's later MAI-Thinking-1 reasoning model - an earlier, more general-purpose entry.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. Hunyuan Hy4 Preview gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. MAI-1-preview gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MAI-1-preview without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MAI-1-preview better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for either model, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview leans toward gpqa diamond (92.3) while MAI-1-preview leans toward microsoft's first fully in-house, end-to-end foundation model - a historic break from relying solely on openai, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MAI-1-preview?

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while MAI-1-preview is API-metered at Not published. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — 1M+ tokens vs 128K, about 7.8× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MAI-1-preview together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, MAI-1-preview and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MAI-1-preview?

Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 12 months after MAI-1-preview.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.