Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B vs Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) vs solar-mini
Too close to call on our weighted score (Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 51, solar-mini 50, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 27). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Nous ResearchHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B
51/100- ECI—
- Price$0.14 / $0.14
- Context8K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)
27/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.40
- Context8K
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 51/100, solar-mini 50/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 27/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B on price and solar-mini for long inputs. 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 priceHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B $0.14 · solar-mini $0.15 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) $0.725 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextsolar-minisolar-mini 32,768 · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 8,192 · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B: Text · Qwen Plus Character (Japanese): Text · solar-mini: Text
- Self-hostingHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BPublishes downloadable weights (Llama 3 Community License)
| Measure | Weight | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) | solar-mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 87 | 54 | 85 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 0 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 51/100 | 27/100 | 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 | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BNous Research | Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)Alibaba (Qwen) | solar-miniUpstage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.14 (best) | $0.50 | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.14 (best) | $1.40 | $0.15 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.14 (best) | $0.725 | $0.15 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 2 providers | Official Alibaba API | Official Upstage API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 8,192 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 32,768 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens (best) | 512 tokens | 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 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenLlama 3 Community License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | qwen-plus-character-ja | solar-mini |
| API providers | 2 (best) | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Apr 30, 2024 | Jan 2024 | Jun 12, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Apr 2024 | 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.
- Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B$1.68
- Qwen Plus Character (Japanese)$7.80
- solar-mini$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or solar-mini?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 51/100, solar-mini 50/100, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 27/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B on price and solar-mini for long inputs. 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, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) or solar-mini?
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B is cheaper at $0.14 input / $0.14 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers). solar-mini costs $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price); Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) costs $0.50 input / $1.40 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.14 per million tokens for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B versus $0.15 for solar-mini (1.1× as much) and $0.725 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) (5.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B has not been scored yet, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) 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 Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and solar-mini yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
solar-mini has the largest context window at 32,768 tokens, against 8,192 for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B and 8,192 for Qwen Plus Character (Japanese). Maximum output per response: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B up to 8,192, Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) up to 512, solar-mini up to 4,096 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B accepts text; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) accepts text; solar-mini accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B publishes its weights (Llama 3 Community License) and can be self-hosted; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) and solar-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
solar-mini is the newest, released Jun 12, 2024. Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B came out Apr 30, 2024; Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) came out Jan 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Qwen Plus Character (Japanese) Apr 2024, 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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