MiniMax H3: Specs, Pricing, and How It Compares

MiniMax H3 is the multimodal video model MiniMax showed at WAIC 2026. It takes text, images, video, and audio as input and returns a clip up to 15 seconds long in native 2K, with the sound generated in the same pass. It is not the M3 language model that keeps showing up in search results for it. The pitch is not the sharpest frames on the market (Kling already ships native 4K); it is 2K plus audio plus heavy reference control at $0.13 per generated second, roughly a quarter of Sora 2 Pro's rate.

Two things temper that. "Open-weights" on the official site does not mean the weights are downloadable today, and the demo reels in circulation are vendor-supplied. H3's price-to-control ratio still has to prove itself outside a curated showcase.

What MiniMax H3 is (and why it isn't M3)

MiniMax H3 comes from Shanghai-based MiniMax (稀宇科技), the company behind the Hailuo video line, and carries a "Next-Generation Open-Weights" label with a July 2026 date on the official site.

The model it keeps getting confused with is M3, a ~428-billion-parameter (23B activated) language and coding model with a 1-million-token context, whose weights are already on HuggingFace. M3 is text; H3 is video. They launched at the same WAIC 2026 event, which is why Google's "People Also Ask" answers an H3 query ("Is MiniMax 3 free?") with M3 facts. "Hailuo 3.0" is a third-party name; MiniMax's own site uses only "MiniMax H3," and it follows Hailuo 02 and Hailuo 2.3 in the same lineage.

MiniMax is not a newcomer, either: a January 2026 Hong Kong IPO raised roughly $619 million at around a $4 billion valuation, with Alibaba and Tencent among its backers.

Verified specs: 2K, 15 seconds, synced audio

On paper, H3 generates 5–15 second clips (integer lengths only) at native 2K and a fixed 24 frames per second, with stereo audio (dialogue, effects, and ambience) produced in the same pass rather than dubbed on later. A 768P tier is also priced. These figures come from MiniMax's API documentation, verified July 31, 2026.

The "omni-reference" input is where H3 puts its complexity: up to nine images, three video clips, and three audio clips at once, used as style, character, motion, or voice guidance rather than forced keyframes. The same model handles lip sync, voice-timbre transfer, and instruction-based editing, swapping a character, object, background, or VFX element by describing the change instead of regenerating from scratch.

What H3 costs (verified, not rumored)

MiniMax publishes per-second rates on its pricing page: at 2K, H3 costs $0.13 per generated second; at 768P, $0.09. Audio input is free, the first five reference images are free, and each additional image is $0.04.

Against its own predecessor, H3 is not cheaper per second (Hailuo 2.3 at 1080P runs about $0.082/s), but Hailuo 2.3 had no native audio and no omni-reference. Against the wider field, H3's per-second rate is where the value argument lives.

"At 2K, H3's per-second price is less than a third of mainstream models, and at 768p, it's less than half the price of mainstream models' 720p." — r/LocalLLaMA discussion

The numbers bear that out. H3 2K at $0.13/s is about a quarter of the ~$0.50/s that third-party aggregators report for Sora 2 Pro at 1080P. The one cheaper rival, Veo 3.1 Lite at roughly $0.03/s, omits audio entirely, so it is a different product; in the 2K-with-audio band H3 is the cheapest credible option.

H3 vs Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, Seedance 2.0, Sora 2 Pro, and Hailuo 2.3

H3 does not lead on raw fidelity, and MiniMax does not pretend it does. Its pitch is the combination of 2K, native audio, generous reference control, and price: a control-and-audio play rather than a resolution play, given that several rivals already offer native 4K.

Kling 3.0 and Seedance 2.0 have no published per-second API rate comparable to MiniMax's, so those cells read "varies"; the Sora figure is a third-party aggregator price, not an official OpenAI rate.

The practical split falls out of those rows. If you need native 4K, Kling 3.0 or Veo 3.1 are the alternatives. If audio is the priority, Seedance 2.0 is an audio-focused option. H3 is the lowest listed per-second option here for 2K footage with synced sound and multi-reference control. The field is also thinning: Sora's web and app shut down in April 2026 with the API scheduled to end in September 2026.

Is H3 open-weights?

MiniMax's site labels H3 "Open-Weights," but as of July 31, 2026, no H3 repository exists on the MiniMaxAI HuggingFace organization; only the M-series text models (M1, M2, M3) and some video feature extractors are there. The honest reading is that H3 is positioned as open-weights, but the weights are not yet released. That sits between two common claims making the rounds: that the weights are "coming in weeks" (a creator-preview read), and that H3 is "not open-weight" at all. The first is unconfirmed; the second conflates "not yet" with "no."

How to access MiniMax H3

H3 is reachable through MiniMax's own API (the video-generation-v2 endpoint) and the MiniMax Hub. There is no public waitlist gating it.

AIReiter has not integrated H3 yet. For AI video you can ship through a reseller today, the models already on the platform cover overlapping ground: Veo 3.1 and Kling 3.0 for high-fidelity work, Seedance 2 when audio leads. This page will reflect H3 when it lands on the platform.

Where H3 still falls short

Two caveats are worth flagging before you commit, and neither is something this article can resolve with a hands-on test. H3 has no independent arena score yet; public leaderboards still list only Hailuo 2.3, so there is no neutral benchmark to set its quality claims against. The demo reels in circulation are vendor-supplied, not independent tests, which is why each claim about H3's output quality here is attributed to a source rather than presented as measured.

Reported limitations from early-access coverage — character drift across cuts, unreliable dialogue, exact text and branding artifacts, limited fine-grained control, and early-access volatility — are typical of a model at this stage, and the reason one striking generation is not enough to choose a model. Keep failed clips as evidence alongside the good ones.

"I had early access to MiniMax's new H3 omni video model, and it is a positive surprise! I would rate it up there with VEO, Kling..." — creator-preview tester

FAQ

Is MiniMax H3 the same as M3?

No. H3 is a video generation model; M3 is a ~428-billion-parameter language and coding model. They launched at the same event and share a parent company, which is why search results mix them up.

Is MiniMax H3 open source?

MiniMax positions H3 as open-weights, but the model weights are not yet publicly released. HuggingFace currently hosts only MiniMax's text models.

How much does MiniMax H3 cost?

$0.13 per generated second at 2K and $0.09 at 768P, through the official API. Audio input is free and the first five reference images are free.

Can I use MiniMax H3 on AIReiter?

Not yet; AIReiter has not integrated H3. For AI video available today, Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, and Seedance 2 are on the platform.

Is H3 better than Veo or Kling?

Not on raw resolution — Kling and Veo offer native 4K. See the comparison table above: H3 trades 4K for same-pass audio and richer reference control at a lower per-second price.

When can I download H3 weights?

MiniMax has not given a date. Community reports point to "the next few weeks," but treat that as unconfirmed until a repository appears on HuggingFace.

The open question is whether MiniMax ships the weights on schedule; until it does, H3 is a strong API option rather than a self-hostable one.