What Parts of MiniMax H3 Are Open Weights and What Stays API-Hosted?

Overview

As of early August 2026, all of it is API-hosted — none of MiniMax H3 is downloadable open weights yet. MiniMax announced the model on July 31, 2026 and described it as open-weight, but the weights have not shipped; the company said they would open “in the coming days.” So today the entire model, including its 2K and native-audio generation, is reachable only through the hosted API. Source note: Verified 2026-08-06 against the MiniMax official H3 blog, MiniMax Video Generation API docs, and Hugging Face MiniMax-H3 model page.

When the weights do land, expect the split to matter. Open-weight releases of video models often cover a core generation model you can self-host under the license, while some enhancements — higher-resolution paths, certain controls, or hosted tooling — may stay API-only. But that boundary is not published for H3 yet, so any claim about “the local model does X but the API adds Y” is premature.

The practical takeaway: for now there is no local side to compare. Plan around the API, and when the repository appears, check the model card for exactly which capabilities the released weights include versus what stays hosted, since a local run may not match an API demo.

Re-verify this on MiniMax’s official channels before designing around a local/hosted split that does not exist yet.