Hy3 vs Seed Character vs Qwen3.8 Flash
Too close to call on our weighted score (Qwen3.8 Flash 76, Seed Character 75, Hy3 58). The right pick depends on what you value most.
TencentHy3
58/100- ECI—
- Price$0.132 / $0.53
- Context256K
ByteDance SeedSeed Character
75/100- ECI—
- Price$0.119 / $0.297
- Context256K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.8 Flash
76/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.47
- Context1M
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Flash 76/100, Seed Character 75/100, Hy3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Seed Character on price and Qwen3.8 Flash 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 priceSeed CharacterSeed Character $0.163 · Qwen3.8 Flash $0.23 · Hy3 $0.232 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.8 FlashQwen3.8 Flash 1,000,000 · Hy3 256,000 · Seed Character 256,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed Character and Qwen3.8 FlashHy3: Text · Seed Character: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3.8 Flash: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingHy3Publishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Hy3 | Seed Character | Qwen3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 80 | 87 | 80 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 80 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 36 | 60 |
| Overall | 100% | 58/100 | 75/100 | 76/100 |
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 | Hy3Tencent | Seed CharacterByteDance Seed | Qwen3.8 FlashAlibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.132 | $0.119 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.53 | $0.297 (best) | $0.47 |
| Cached input | — | $0.024 | $0.016 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.232 | $0.163 (best) | $0.23 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.178 / $0.891 | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 15 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API | Official Alibaba API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens | 1,000,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) | 131,072 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | Yesminimal · low · high | Yeslow · medium · xhigh |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | hy3 | doubao-seed-character-260628 | qwen3.8-flash |
| API providers | 18 | 2 | 23 (best) |
| Released | Jul 6, 2026 | Jun 23, 2026 | Aug 26, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Hy3$2.38
- Seed Character$1.78
- Qwen3.8 Flash$2.44
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Hy3, Seed Character or Qwen3.8 Flash?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 1 points (Qwen3.8 Flash 76/100, Seed Character 75/100, Hy3 58/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Seed Character on price and Qwen3.8 Flash 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, Hy3, Seed Character or Qwen3.8 Flash?
Seed Character is cheaper at $0.119 input / $0.297 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). Qwen3.8 Flash costs $0.15 input / $0.47 output per million tokens (official Alibaba API price); Hy3 costs $0.132 input / $0.53 output per million tokens (median across 15 API providers; free on Tencent TokenHub). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.163 per million tokens for Seed Character versus $0.23 for Qwen3.8 Flash (1.4× as much) and $0.232 for Hy3 (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Hy3 has not been scored yet, Seed Character has not been scored yet and Qwen3.8 Flash has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Hy3, Seed Character and Qwen3.8 Flash yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.8 Flash has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 256,000 for Hy3 and 256,000 for Seed Character. Maximum output per response: Hy3 up to 128,000, Seed Character up to 256,000, Qwen3.8 Flash up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Hy3 accepts text; Seed Character accepts text, images and video; Qwen3.8 Flash accepts text, images and video. Seed Character handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Hy3 publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Seed Character and Qwen3.8 Flash is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.8 Flash is the newest, released Aug 26, 2026. Hy3 came out Jul 6, 2026; Seed Character came out Jun 23, 2026.
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 Oct 4, 2026.
