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Comparison · 3 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Seed Character vs Hy-MT2-30B-A3B vs Ornith 1.5 35B A3B

Seed Character comes out ahead, 73 to 66 and 44 on our weighted score, though Hy-MT2-30B-A3B is 21% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    ByteDance Seed

    Seed Character

    Released Jun 23, 2026

    73/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.119 / $0.297
    • Context256K
  2. Tencent

    Hy-MT2-30B-A3B

    Released May 21, 2026

    44/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.074 / $0.295
    • Context8K
  3. DeepReinforce

    Ornith 1.5 35B A3B

    Released Aug 18, 2026

    66/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.10 / $0.40
    • Context262K
01 — Verdict

Seed Character is our pick

Seed Character is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ornith 1.5 35B A3B (66) and Hy-MT2-30B-A3B (44). It leads on inputs & features. Hy-MT2-30B-A3B wins on price. 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 priceHy-MT2-30B-A3BHy-MT2-30B-A3B $0.129 · Seed Character $0.163 · Ornith 1.5 35B A3B $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextOrnith 1.5 35B A3BOrnith 1.5 35B A3B 262,144 · Seed Character 256,000 · Hy-MT2-30B-A3B 8,192 tokens
  • Widest inputsSeed CharacterSeed Character: Text, Images, Video · Hy-MT2-30B-A3B: Text · Ornith 1.5 35B A3B: Text, Images
  • Self-hostingHy-MT2-30B-A3B and Ornith 1.5 35B A3BPublishes downloadable weights (MIT)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightSeed CharacterHy-MT2-30B-A3BOrnith 1.5 35B A3B
Price50%848882
Inputs & features30%80060
Context window20%36037
Overall100%73/10044/10066/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Seed Character vs Hy-MT2-30B-A3B vs Ornith 1.5 35B A3B specifications side by side
SpecificationSeed CharacterByteDance SeedHy-MT2-30B-A3BTencentOrnith 1.5 35B A3BDeepReinforce
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)———
ECI rank———
Price per million tokens
Input$0.119$0.074 (best)$0.10
Output$0.297$0.295 (best)$0.40
Cached input$0.024——
Blended (3:1)$0.163$0.129 (best)$0.175
Long-context rateOver 32K: $0.178 / $0.891Same rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Volcengine Ark APIMedian of 3 providersMedian of 1 providers
Limits
Context window256,000 tokens8,192 tokens262,144 tokens (best)
Max output256,000 tokens (best)4,096 tokens—
Inputs and features
TextYesYesYes
ImagesYesNoYes
PDFsNoNoNo
AudioNoNoNo
VideoYesNoNo
ReasoningYesminimal · low · highNoYes
Tool callingYesNoYes
Structured outputYesNoNo
Availability
WeightsProprietaryOpenOpenMIT
API model IDdoubao-seed-character-260628——
API providers3 (best)3 (best)1
ReleasedJun 23, 2026May 21, 2026Aug 18, 2026
Knowledge cutoff———
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Seed Character$1.78
  • Hy-MT2-30B-A3B$1.33
  • Ornith 1.5 35B A3B$1.80
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Seed Character, Hy-MT2-30B-A3B or Ornith 1.5 35B A3B?

Seed Character is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Ornith 1.5 35B A3B (66) and Hy-MT2-30B-A3B (44). It leads on inputs & features. Hy-MT2-30B-A3B wins on price. 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, Seed Character, Hy-MT2-30B-A3B or Ornith 1.5 35B A3B?

Hy-MT2-30B-A3B is cheaper at $0.074 input / $0.295 output per million tokens (median across 3 API providers). Seed Character costs $0.119 input / $0.297 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price); Ornith 1.5 35B A3B costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.129 per million tokens for Hy-MT2-30B-A3B versus $0.163 for Seed Character (1.3× as much) and $0.175 for Ornith 1.5 35B A3B (1.4× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Seed Character has not been scored yet, Hy-MT2-30B-A3B has not been scored yet and Ornith 1.5 35B A3B has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed Character, Hy-MT2-30B-A3B and Ornith 1.5 35B A3B yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Hy-MT2-30B-A3B does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Ornith 1.5 35B A3B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed Character and 8,192 for Hy-MT2-30B-A3B. Maximum output per response: Seed Character up to 256,000, Hy-MT2-30B-A3B up to 4,096 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Seed Character accepts text, images and video; Hy-MT2-30B-A3B accepts text; Ornith 1.5 35B A3B accepts text and images. Seed Character handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Hy-MT2-30B-A3B and Ornith 1.5 35B A3B publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Seed Character is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Ornith 1.5 35B A3B is the newest, released Aug 18, 2026. Seed Character came out Jun 23, 2026; Hy-MT2-30B-A3B came out May 21, 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 Nov 2, 2026.