Aya Expanse 32B vs Hermes 3 405B Instruct vs solar-mini
solar-mini comes out ahead, 50 to 32 and 29 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
CohereAya Expanse 32B
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
Nous ResearchHermes 3 405B Instruct
29/100- ECI—
- Price$1.00 / $1.00
- Context131K
- Our pick
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
solar-mini is our pick
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (32) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (29). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest pricesolar-minisolar-mini $0.15 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 · Hermes 3 405B Instruct $1.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextHermes 3 405B InstructHermes 3 405B Instruct 131,072 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsAya Expanse 32B: Text · Hermes 3 405B Instruct: Text · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingAya Expanse 32B and Hermes 3 405B InstructPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Aya Expanse 32B | Hermes 3 405B Instruct | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 53 | 48 | 85 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 0 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 25 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 32/100 | 29/100 | 50/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Aya Expanse 32BCohere | Hermes 3 405B InstructNous Research | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.50 | $1.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Output | $1.50 | $1.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.75 | $1.00 | $0.15 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Cohere API | Median of 5 providers | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens |
| Max output | 4,000 tokens | 16,384 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | No | No |
| Tool calling | No | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b | — | solar-mini |
| API providers | 2 | 5 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 24, 2024 | Aug 16, 2024 | Jun 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Dec 31, 2023 | Sep 2024 |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
- Hermes 3 405B Instruct$12.00
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Aya Expanse 32B, Hermes 3 405B Instruct or solar-mini?
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Aya Expanse 32B (32) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (29). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Aya Expanse 32B, Hermes 3 405B Instruct or solar-mini?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). Aya Expanse 32B costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Cohere API price); Hermes 3 405B Instruct costs $1.00 input / $1.00 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for solar-mini versus $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (5× as much) and $1.00 for Hermes 3 405B Instruct (6.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Aya Expanse 32B has not been scored yet, Hermes 3 405B Instruct has not been scored yet and solar-mini has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Aya Expanse 32B, Hermes 3 405B Instruct and solar-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Aya Expanse 32B and Hermes 3 405B Instruct does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hermes 3 405B Instruct has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 128,000 for Aya Expanse 32B and 32,768 for solar-mini. Maximum output per response: Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000, Hermes 3 405B Instruct up to 16,384, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Aya Expanse 32B accepts text; Hermes 3 405B Instruct accepts text; solar-mini accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Aya Expanse 32B and Hermes 3 405B Instruct publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; solar-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Aya Expanse 32B is the newest, released Oct 24, 2024. Hermes 3 405B Instruct came out Aug 16, 2024; solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Hermes 3 405B Instruct Dec 31, 2023, solar-mini Sep 2024.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Nov 2, 2026.
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