Seed Character vs Hy-MT2-30B-A3B
Seed Character comes out ahead, 73 to 44 on our weighted score, though Hy-MT2-30B-A3B is 21% cheaper per token.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed Character
73/100- ECI—
- Price$0.119 / $0.297
- Context256K
TencentHy-MT2-30B-A3B
44/100- ECI—
- Price$0.074 / $0.295
- Context8K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Seed Character is our pick
Seed Character is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Hy-MT2-30B-A3B (44). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextSeed CharacterSeed Character 256,000 · Hy-MT2-30B-A3B 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed CharacterSeed Character: Text, Images, Video · Hy-MT2-30B-A3B: Text
- Self-hostingHy-MT2-30B-A3BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Seed Character | Hy-MT2-30B-A3B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 84 | 88 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 73/100 | 44/100 |
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 | Seed CharacterByteDance Seed | Hy-MT2-30B-A3BTencent |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.119 | $0.074 (best) |
| Output | $0.297 | $0.295 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.024 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.163 | $0.129 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.178 / $0.891 | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Median of 3 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Max output | 256,000 tokens (best) | 4,096 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yesminimal · low · high | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-character-260628 | — |
| API providers | 3 | 3 |
| Released | Jun 23, 2026 | May 21, 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.
- Seed Character$1.78
- Hy-MT2-30B-A3B$1.33
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed Character or Hy-MT2-30B-A3B?
Seed Character is the better all-round choice, scoring 73/100 against Hy-MT2-30B-A3B (44). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 or Hy-MT2-30B-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). 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).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Seed Character has not been scored yet and Hy-MT2-30B-A3B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed Character and Hy-MT2-30B-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?
Seed Character has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 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. Seed Character handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Hy-MT2-30B-A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Seed Character is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Seed Character is the newest, released 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.
