solar-mini vs GLM-4.5-Air vs Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 51, solar-mini 50, GLM-4.5-Air 48). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Upstagesolar-mini
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.15
- Context33K
Z.ai (Zhipu)GLM-4.5-Air
48/100- ECI—
- Price$0.20 / $1.10
- Context131K
Nous ResearchHermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B
51/100- ECI—
- Price$0.14 / $0.14
- Context8K
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, GLM-4.5-Air 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B on price and GLM-4.5-Air 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 · GLM-4.5-Air $0.425 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextGLM-4.5-AirGLM-4.5-Air 131,072 · solar-mini 32,768 · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 8,192 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputssolar-mini: Text · GLM-4.5-Air: Text · Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B: Text
- Self-hostingGLM-4.5-Air and Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BPublishes downloadable weights (Llama 3 Community License)
| Measure | Weight | solar-mini | GLM-4.5-Air | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 85 | 65 | 87 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 25 | 35 | 25 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 25 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 48/100 | 51/100 |
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 | solar-miniUpstage | GLM-4.5-AirZ.ai (Zhipu) | Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8BNous Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.20 | $0.14 (best) |
| Output | $0.15 | $1.10 | $0.14 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.03 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.15 | $0.425 | $0.14 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Upstage API | Official Z.AI API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,768 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Max output | 4,096 tokens | 98,304 tokens (best) | 8,192 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 | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open | OpenLlama 3 Community License |
| API model ID | solar-mini | glm-4.5-air | — |
| API providers | 1 | 19 (best) | 2 |
| Released | Jun 12, 2024 | Jul 28, 2025 | Apr 30, 2024 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Sep 2024 | Apr 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- solar-mini$1.80
- GLM-4.5-Air$4.20
- Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B$1.68
Which should you choose?
Which is better: solar-mini, GLM-4.5-Air or Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 51/100, solar-mini 50/100, GLM-4.5-Air 48/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B on price and GLM-4.5-Air 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, solar-mini, GLM-4.5-Air or Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B?
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); GLM-4.5-Air costs $0.20 input / $1.10 output per million tokens (official Z.AI 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 $0.425 for GLM-4.5-Air (3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. solar-mini has not been scored yet, GLM-4.5-Air has not been scored yet and Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for solar-mini, GLM-4.5-Air and Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B 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?
GLM-4.5-Air has the largest context window at 131,072 tokens, against 32,768 for solar-mini and 8,192 for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B. Maximum output per response: solar-mini up to 4,096, GLM-4.5-Air up to 98,304, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
solar-mini accepts text; GLM-4.5-Air accepts text; Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
GLM-4.5-Air and Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B publishes its weights (Llama 3 Community License) and can be self-hosted; solar-mini is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GLM-4.5-Air is the newest, released Jul 28, 2025. solar-mini came out Jun 12, 2024; Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B came out Apr 30, 2024. Knowledge cutoff: solar-mini Sep 2024, GLM-4.5-Air Apr 2025.
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.
