{"slug": "video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3", "title": "Video AI: MiniMax challenges ByteDance with low price, open weights for new H3 model", "summary": "MiniMax launched H3, its newest multimodal video generation model, with open weights and competitive pricing, aiming to challenge closed-source rivals like ByteDance's Seedance 2.5. According to benchmark platform Artificial Analysis, H3 is currently the world's most powerful AI model in video editing, but trails Google's Gemini Omni Flash in text-to-video tasks and ranks behind both ByteDance's Seedance 2.0 and Gemini Omni Flash in image-to-video capabilities. Full model weights are slated for release 'in the coming days' under the MiniMax Community License, which permits free non-commercial use and commercial use for organizations with under US$20 million in annual revenue.", "body_md": "# Video AI: MiniMax challenges ByteDance with low price, open weights for new H3 model\n\nFirm aims to ‘support open-source community’ and a ‘broad range of hardware’, as H3 model bests Seedance 2.0 in some tasks\n\n[MiniMax](https://www.scmp.com/topics/minimax?module=inline&pgtype=article)has launched H3, its newest multimodal video generation model, pledging to break closed-source “dominance” through open weights and competitive pricing – as rival\n\n[ByteDance](https://www.scmp.com/topics/bytedance?module=inline&pgtype=article)rolls out its latest Seedance 2.5 model.\n\nH3 was currently the world’s most powerful AI model in video editing, according to benchmark platform Artificial Analysis. However, it trailed Google’s Gemini Omni Flash in text-to-video tasks, and ranked behind both ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 and Gemini Omni Flash in image-to-video capabilities.\n\nDesigned for commercial content creation across film, advertising, video games and product design, H3 is currently available via an application programming interface and MiniMax’s consumer-facing Hailuo AI platform.\n\nFull model weights were slated for release “in the coming days”, MiniMax said on Friday.\n\nWhile MiniMax’s previous Hailuo video models were proprietary, it decided to open up H3’s weights to “support the open-source community” and let users customise their own versions with “a broad range of AI hardware”, MiniMax said, citing hardware compatibility as a “key consideration” in H3’s design. Weights are the underlying parameters that encode an AI’s intelligence.\n\n“Closed-source models have long dominated video generation, with slower iteration and a less open ecosystem than fields like large language models,” the company said in a blog post on Friday.\n\nMiniMax would release H3’s weights under the MiniMax Community License, which permits free non-commercial use and commercial use for organisations with under US$20 million in annual revenue with attribution requirements, according to Artificial Analysis.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3", "canonical_source": "https://www.scmp.com/tech/article/3362540/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-low-price-open-weights-new-h3-model?utm_source=rss_feed", "published_at": "2026-07-31 10:30:07+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-31 10:37:07.321649+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "generative-ai", "ai-products"], "entities": ["MiniMax", "ByteDance", "Google", "Artificial Analysis", "H3", "Seedance 2.5", "Gemini Omni Flash", "Hailuo AI"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/video-ai-minimax-challenges-bytedance-with-low-price-open-weights-for-new-h3.jsonld"}}