Hermes 3 70B Instruct vs solar-mini vs Aya Expanse 32B
solar-mini comes out ahead, 50 to 32 and 32 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
Nous ResearchHermes 3 70B Instruct
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.70 / $0.70
- Context131K
- Our pick
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
CohereAya Expanse 32B
32/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $1.50
- Context128K
solar-mini is our pick
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Hermes 3 70B Instruct (32) and Aya Expanse 32B (32). 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 · Hermes 3 70B Instruct $0.70 · Aya Expanse 32B $0.75 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextHermes 3 70B InstructHermes 3 70B Instruct 131,072 · Aya Expanse 32B 128,000 · solar-mini 32,768 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsHermes 3 70B Instruct: Text · solar-mini: Text · Aya Expanse 32B: Text
- Self-hostingHermes 3 70B Instruct and Aya Expanse 32BPublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Hermes 3 70B Instruct | solar-mini | Aya Expanse 32B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 55 | 85 | 53 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 25 | 0 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 32/100 | 50/100 | 32/100 |
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 3 70B InstructNous Research | solar-miniUpstage | Aya Expanse 32BCohere |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.70 | $0.15 (best) | $0.50 |
| Output | $0.70 | $0.15 (best) | $1.50 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.70 | $0.15 (best) | $0.75 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 5 providers | Official Upstage API | Official Cohere API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens (best) | 32,768 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 16,384 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens | 4,000 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 | Yes | No |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 |
| API model ID | — | solar-mini | c4ai-aya-expanse-32b |
| API providers | 5 (best) | 1 | 2 |
| Released | Aug 18, 2024 | Jun 12, 2024 | Oct 24, 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.
- Hermes 3 70B Instruct$8.40
- solar-mini$1.80
- Aya Expanse 32B$8.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Hermes 3 70B Instruct, solar-mini or Aya Expanse 32B?
solar-mini is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Hermes 3 70B Instruct (32) and Aya Expanse 32B (32). 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, Hermes 3 70B Instruct, solar-mini or Aya Expanse 32B?
solar-mini is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Upstage API price). Hermes 3 70B Instruct costs $0.70 input / $0.70 output per million tokens (median across 5 API providers); Aya Expanse 32B costs $0.50 input / $1.50 output per million tokens (official Cohere API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.15 per million tokens for solar-mini versus $0.70 for Hermes 3 70B Instruct (4.7× as much) and $0.75 for Aya Expanse 32B (5× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Hermes 3 70B Instruct has not been scored yet, solar-mini has not been scored yet and Aya Expanse 32B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Hermes 3 70B Instruct, solar-mini and Aya Expanse 32B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Hermes 3 70B Instruct and Aya Expanse 32B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hermes 3 70B 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: Hermes 3 70B Instruct up to 16,384, solar-mini up to 4,096, Aya Expanse 32B up to 4,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct accepts text; solar-mini accepts text; Aya Expanse 32B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Hermes 3 70B Instruct and Aya Expanse 32B 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 70B Instruct came out Aug 18, 2024; solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: Hermes 3 70B 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.
