MiniMax Calls H3-Image Open Source. Its License Bars the US, the EU, the UK, and South Korea, and the Weights Plus Text Encoder Are About 135 GB.
MiniMax released H3-Image on November 11: text-to-image, reference generation with up to 16 references, and editing in one checkpoint, about 16 megapixels native with no upscaler, distilled to six sampling steps. The README calls it a state-of-the-art open-source model. The license, dated November 10, grants rights only in an Applicable Territory that excludes the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and the United States, and requires MiniMax's written authorization above $1 million in annualized revenue or for any hosted service to third parties. The transformer is 33.1 billion parameters and 66.28 GB in BF16, and the text encoder, loaded from MiniMax-H3, is another 66.7 GB. Speed and leaderboard claims are MiniMax's or X-only. We read the blog, the model card, and the license.
By T.W. Ghost
MiniMax released H3-Image today, November 11, 2026: text-to-image, reference-based generation with up to 16 reference images, and editing, all in one checkpoint. The card says native output around 16 megapixels, 4096 by 4096 and up to 6272 by 2688, with no upscaler, and a sampler distilled to six steps with no classifier-free guidance. The README calls it "a state-of-the-art open-source model." The weights are on Hugging Face, and the same model is sold through the MiniMax API, MiniMax Code, and Hailuo, with a 50% discount on 4K and larger outputs during launch week.
The license, dated November 10, is where the phrase "open-source" stops holding. It is a community license whose grant applies "solely within the Applicable Territory," defined as worldwide excluding the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and the United States. Anyone with more than US$1 million in annualized revenue, counting affiliates, needs MiniMax's prior written authorization, and so does anyone offering a hosted service to third parties at any revenue. Hugging Face tags the license other. The download is large as well: a 33.1-billion-parameter dense single-stream diffusion transformer at 66.28 GB in BF16, plus a text encoder that is not in the repo and loads from MiniMax-H3 at 66.7 GB, about 135 GB before the optional prompt expander. We read the blog post, the model card, and the license text. Here is what held up.
What MiniMax Published
| MiniMax H3-Image (November 11, 2026) | |
|---|---|
| Dates | Blog Nov 11; license dated Nov 10; Hugging Face repo last modified Nov 12, 01:52 UTC |
| Tasks | Text-to-image; reference generation, up to 16 references; editing; one checkpoint |
| Resolution | About 16 MP native; 4096x4096 up to 6272x2688; no upscaler |
| Sampling | Distilled to 6 steps, no CFG; num_inference_steps must be omitted or 6, other values return HTTP 400 |
| Size | DiT 33.1B parameters, dense single-stream; BF16 transformer 66.28 GB; repo 68.65 GB; VAE 2.34 GB |
| Text encoder | Not in the repo; loaded from MiniMax-H3, 66.7 GB |
| Prompt expander | Optional H3-Image-PE, NVFP4, 17.9 GB |
| License | MiniMax H3-Image community license; Hugging Face tag other; README says "open-source" |
| Territory | Grant "solely within the Applicable Territory": worldwide excluding the EU, the UK, the Republic of Korea, and the United States |
| Gates | Written authorization above US$1M annualized revenue, you plus affiliates, or for any Hosted Service to third parties (Section IV); safeguard, reporting, and enforcement duties for anyone offering generation to third parties (Section V) |
| Hosted | MiniMax API, MiniMax Code, Hailuo; 50% off 4K and above during launch week; "50 to 70% of comparable mainstream offerings" (vendor; no list price read) |
| Speed | 4K in under 10 seconds; up to 5x mainstream; Standard 1.5 to 2x, Highspeed 3 to 4x (vendor; no hardware named) |
Open everywhere except the US, the EU, the UK, and Korea. The grant does not reach them. MiniMax invites license requests from those territories, which is a permission process, not an open license.
Two more gates past the border. Revenue above $1 million, counting affiliates, and any hosted service to third parties both need written authorization. The same license family already sits under Pika's H3 Flex adapters.
Six steps, no knob. The reference server returns HTTP 400 for any step count other than six. Fast by design, with no trade of speed for quality left to the user.
The ranking line is held. An X summary says H3-Image "leads open-weight leaderboards." We did not read it on an Artificial Analysis or Arena board, and we will not print a rank until we do. A third-party post claiming a 3 GB VRAM minimum is contradicted by the card's own file sizes and is not used here.
Verified vs Unconfirmed: The Scorecard
| Claim | Verdict |
|---|---|
| Release date; license date; repo timestamp | Verified (MiniMax blog; LICENSE; Hugging Face API) |
| Excluded territories; $1M and hosted-service gates; Section V duties | Verified (LICENSE) |
Hugging Face tag other; README "open-source" | Verified |
| 33.1B; 66.28 GB; 68.65 GB; 2.34 GB; 66.7 GB encoder; 17.9 GB expander | Verified (model card) |
| Six-step constraint; HTTP 400 | Verified (model card) |
| 4K under 10 seconds; up to 5x; Standard and Highspeed multiples | Vendor (no hardware named) |
| API price "50 to 70% of mainstream"; launch-week discount | Vendor; no list price read |
| "Leads open-weight leaderboards" | Unverified (X summary only); held |
| "Min 3 GB VRAM" | Contradicted by the card; not used |
Who Should Use It
Use H3-Image if you are outside the four excluded territories, under $1 million in revenue, generating for yourself rather than hosting for others, and have about 135 GB of room for the weights and the encoder.
Skip the "open-source" label when you do your own license review; this is a community license with a border, a revenue gate, and a hosting gate, and nothing here is usable under the grant from the United States.
The frontier is elsewhere: on the same day Runway published Praxis-1 under Apache 2.0 with no territory clause, and Baidu's ERNIE 5.5 Flash Base license drew a similar border around the EU, the UK, and Korea. Our model comparison has the current standings side by side.
Sources
- MiniMax: H3-Image
- Hugging Face: MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-H3-Image model card
- Hugging Face: MiniMax-H3-Image LICENSE
- MiniMax platform docs: image generation
- Apidog on X: H3-Image license summary (third party, matches the LICENSE)
*Not sure whether an open-weight image model is open where you are? Take the free 2-minute quiz and get matched. Then read about the adapters already living under this license: Pika H3 Flex.*