MiniMax H3 landed at the end of July 2026, the open weights followed in August, and fal.ai shipped a speed-tuned build called H3 Max a few weeks later. Since then every thread about it mixes the three names up. We kept re-explaining the difference, so we put the explanation on a site: h3max.info. This post is that explanation, plus the code to generate your first clip.
This is the part that trips everyone up.
| MiniMax H3 | H3 Max | H3 Max Turbo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who makes it | MiniMax | fal.ai, post-trained on H3 | fal.ai |
| Max resolution | 2K on the hosted API, 768p from the open weights | 768p | 768p |
| Speed | Baseline | About 3 s for a 5-second clip | Faster still |
| Open weights | Yes, under the MiniMax H3 Community License | No, API only | No, API only |
| Best for | Top quality, editing, self-hosting | Fast production and interactive apps | Volume and cost |
The headline number is worth repeating: H3 Max renders a 5-second 768p clip in roughly three seconds, which is faster than the clip plays. That changes what you can build. People are already running live, chat-driven video streams on it.
H3 is multimodal in both directions. One request takes text, an image, video or audio, and returns 5 to 15 seconds of video at 24 fps with a native stereo soundtrack. You are not stitching a silent clip to a separate audio model, and you are not fixing the audio afterwards either: it comes out of the same pass, so if you do not like it, you regenerate.
The hosted endpoints are the quickest way in. Install @fal-ai/client, set your key, and subscribe:
import { fal } from "@fal-ai/client";
fal.config({ credentials: process.env.FAL_KEY });
const { data } = await fal.subscribe("minimax/h3-max/image-to-video", {
input: {
image_url: "https://example.com/portrait.jpg",
prompt: "the person turns to camera and smiles, cinematic lighting",
duration: 5, // 5-15 seconds
resolution: "768P", // 480P or 768P
},
});
console.log(data.video.url);
There are five endpoints. Text to video, image to video and reference to video on minimax/h3-max/…, plus text and image to video on minimax/h3-max-turbo/…. The inputs differ by mode:
prompt, aspect_ratio, duration, resolution, seed. image_url and an optional end_image_url to animate towards a final frame.reference_image_urls, reference_video_urls and reference_audio_urls, which is how you keep one character consistent across shots.
subscribe blocks until the clip is done, which is fine in a script. In a web app, submit to the queue with a webhook instead and let the request return immediately — a 15-second render is still seconds of waiting you do not want to hold a connection open for.
fal bills per second of generated video. The launch promotion ended on 7 September 2026, so these are the standard rates:
| Endpoint | 480p | 768p | 15 s at 768p |
|---|---|---|---|
| H3 Max Turbo | $0.025 / s | $0.04 / s | $0.60 |
| H3 Max | $0.05 / s | $0.08 / s | $1.20 |
Two practical notes. Turbo at 480p is cheap enough to iterate on a prompt properly before you spend anything at 768p. And fal turns on auto top-up by default, so if you want a hard ceiling, switch it off in billing before you start experimenting.
The model is easy. Finding anything about it is not. The official announcement, the open weights, the API docs, the fal endpoints, the license, the deployment guides and the live projects are spread across half a dozen places, and search results are full of pages that confuse H3 with H3 Max.
So h3max.info is two things:
Every H3 Max playground asks the same questions: which endpoint, how long, what resolution, what aspect ratio, and then leaves you staring at an empty prompt box. Most people do not have an opinion on any of that. They have a photo and an idea.
So the Studio is built around scenarios. A scenario is one fixed endpoint, one length, one resolution, one aspect ratio and a prompt template written and tested in advance. What is left for you is a photo, a sentence, or both. Two are live right now:
Credits are prepaid and never expire, new accounts start with some for free, and a render that fails on our side or at fal refunds its credits automatically. Real outputs are on the homepage if you want to see what comes out before signing up.
<video> straight at it instead of copying the file. Retention is controlled per request, and files stay unless you set an expiry — but that also means the URL's lifetime is fal's call, not yours.
If you want the API, start at the directory — the endpoints, docs and open weights are all one click away. If you just want a clip, open the Studio, pick a scenario and add a photo.
h3max.info is an independent community project. We are not affiliated with MiniMax or fal.ai, and prices and limits on their side change often — check the model page before you budget.