Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Pick MiniMax M3 for open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context or native multimodal input — text, image and video. On a tight budget at scale, MiniMax M3 is the value pick.
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent) and MiniMax M3 (MiniMax) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. 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. MiniMax M3 is miniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences
Price: MiniMax M3 is about 3.6× cheaper on input ($0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens vs $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
Context window: 1M+ tokens vs 1M — within a few percent of each other, so treat this as a tie and test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
Recency: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is the newer model by about 3 months (released August 28, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Specifications
Spec
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
MiniMax M3
Provider
Tencent (China)
MiniMax (China)
Released
August 28, 2026
May 31, 2026
Context window
1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages)
1M (~1,573 pages)
Price (in/out)
$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens
$0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text
text, image, video, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not 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 is the newer of the two.
Terminal-Bench (85.4): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — MiniMax M3 is comparatively weak here — miniMax's own reported 80.5 SWE-Bench Verified figure is vendor-stated, not independently verified
SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview lists sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9) among its strengths; MiniMax M3 does not.
Open-weight 428B MoE (~23B active per token) with a 1M-token context: MiniMax M3 — MiniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing — and it runs cheaper at $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens.
Native multimodal input — text, image and video: MiniMax M3 — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — text-only, no native vision support
Reports 59.0 on SWE-Bench Pro (a strong open-weight score), surpassing GPT-5.5: MiniMax M3 — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump
Lowest cost at scale: MiniMax M3 — At $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume: MiniMax M3 — At $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens it undercuts Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: MiniMax M3 — Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3): Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context: MiniMax M3 — That is its strongest area.
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.
MiniMax M3: where it fits
MiniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing. Released May 31, 2026 by MiniMax, it is built for open-weight 428B MoE (~23B active per token) with a 1M-token context, native multimodal input — text, image and video, reports 59.0 on SWE-Bench Pro (a strong open-weight score), surpassing GPT-5.5, and low entry pricing at $0.30/$1.20 per million up to 512K tokens.
Its trade-offs: price doubles to $0.60/$2.40 above 512K tokens — not flat across 1M, miniMax's own reported 80.5 SWE-Bench Verified figure is vendor-stated, not independently verified, sWE-Bench Pro is a different, harder benchmark than SWE-Bench Verified, and newer than M2.7 but with less independent testing so far. At $0.23 in / $0.96 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MiniMax M3 overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. MiniMax M3 costs less per token; MiniMax M3 holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3), MiniMax M3 for open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MiniMax M3 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 MiniMax M3 leans toward open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper — $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens vs $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens, roughly 3.6× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Effectively neither — 1M+ tokens vs 1M is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MiniMax M3 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, MiniMax M3 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 MiniMax M3?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 3 months after MiniMax M3.
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview vs MiniMax M3
Tencent · China | MiniMax · China · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3) or terminal-bench (85.4). Pick MiniMax M3 for open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context or native multimodal input — text, image and video. On a tight budget at scale, MiniMax M3 is the value pick.
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview (Tencent) and MiniMax M3 (MiniMax) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. 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. MiniMax M3 is miniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing. They diverge most on price and context window — each quantified below from the models' real specs.
Key differences at a glance
▸Price: MiniMax M3 is about 3.6× cheaper on input ($0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens vs $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens) — meaningful once you are processing millions of tokens a month.
▸Context window: 1M+ tokens vs 1M — within a few percent of each other, so treat this as a tie and test on your own long inputs, since usable recall varies by model.
▸Recency: Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is the newer model by about 3 months (released August 28, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
MiniMax M3
Provider
Tencent (China)
MiniMax (China)
Released
August 28, 2026
May 31, 2026
Context window
1M+ tokens (~1,500 pages)
1M (~1,573 pages)
Price (in/out)
$0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens
$0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text
text, image, video, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not 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 is the newer of the two.
Terminal-Bench (85.4)
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
MiniMax M3 is comparatively weak here — miniMax's own reported 80.5 SWE-Bench Verified figure is vendor-stated, not independently verified
SWE-bench Multilingual (82.9)
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview lists sWE-bench Multilingual (82.9) among its strengths; MiniMax M3 does not.
Open-weight 428B MoE (~23B active per token) with a 1M-token context
MiniMax M3
MiniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing — and it runs cheaper at $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens.
Native multimodal input — text, image and video
MiniMax M3
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — text-only, no native vision support
Reports 59.0 on SWE-Bench Pro (a strong open-weight score), surpassing GPT-5.5
MiniMax M3
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview is comparatively weak here — sWE-Marathon score still low in absolute terms (31.9) despite a large relative jump
Lowest cost at scale
MiniMax M3
At $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens, it is the cheaper of the two — the gap dominates the bill on high-volume workloads.
Which should you pick?
A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume
→ MiniMax M3
At $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens it undercuts Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ MiniMax M3
Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is gpqa diamond (92.3)
→ Hunyuan Hy4 Preview
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context
→ MiniMax M3
That is its strongest area.
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.
MiniMax M3: where it fits
MiniMax's open-weight 428B multimodal model with a 1M context — strong reported coding (59.0 SWE-Bench Pro) at low entry pricing. Released May 31, 2026 by MiniMax, it is built for open-weight 428B MoE (~23B active per token) with a 1M-token context, native multimodal input — text, image and video, reports 59.0 on SWE-Bench Pro (a strong open-weight score), surpassing GPT-5.5, and low entry pricing at $0.30/$1.20 per million up to 512K tokens.
Its trade-offs: price doubles to $0.60/$2.40 above 512K tokens — not flat across 1M, miniMax's own reported 80.5 SWE-Bench Verified figure is vendor-stated, not independently verified, sWE-Bench Pro is a different, harder benchmark than SWE-Bench Verified, and newer than M2.7 but with less independent testing so far. At $0.23 in / $0.96 out per million tokens, it sits in the budget price band.
The bottom line for this matchup
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MiniMax M3 overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. MiniMax M3 costs less per token; MiniMax M3 holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Hunyuan Hy4 Preview for gpqa diamond (92.3), MiniMax M3 for open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MiniMax M3 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.
Is Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MiniMax M3 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 MiniMax M3 leans toward open-weight 428b moe (~23b active per token) with a 1m-token context, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Hunyuan Hy4 Preview or MiniMax M3?
MiniMax M3 is cheaper — $0.834/$2.501 per 1M tokens vs $0.23/$0.96 per 1M tokens, roughly 3.6× apart on input.
Which has the bigger context window?
Effectively neither — 1M+ tokens vs 1M is a difference of a few percent. Remember advertised ≠ usable: recall typically degrades before the ceiling.
Can I use both Hunyuan Hy4 Preview and MiniMax M3 together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Hunyuan Hy4 Preview, MiniMax M3 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 MiniMax M3?
Hunyuan Hy4 Preview — released August 28, 2026, about 3 months after MiniMax M3.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.