MiniMax H3 open weights: 768p locally, 2K only hosted

Can you run MiniMax H3 at 2K from the open weights? No. MiniMax's open-source announcement, dated 2026-08-03, says the base model outputs 768p by default and that 2K comes from a separate H3-Regenerate-2K module that is not yet open-sourced. The weights are for self-hosting; high resolution stays on the hosted side.

What is and is not released

The post releases the "MiniMax-H3 Base FL2VA" and "Base Ref2VA" checkpoints under the MiniMax H3 Community License, hosted on Hugging Face and ModelScope. It says H3-Context-IR is not included, and that content moderation applies.

The hosted tier

MiniMax's hosted video generation guide lists H3 at 768P and 2K, 4 to 15 seconds. On Sume, minimax-h3 lists 480p and 768p as native tiers, with 2K and 4K priced as upscales at $0.13 and $0.16 per second list. Sume bills the list price times 1.25, rounded up to cents.

Sume's row starts at 5 seconds and takes up to 9 images, 3 videos and 3 audio clips, 12 files combined.

Decision

Self-host if you can accept 768p, have the GPUs, and need control over the weights under the community license terms; read that license first. Use the hosted route if you need 2K or want billing per second without running infrastructure. This post does not cover the license terms; read them first.

Questions to settle before self-hosting

If any answer is no, the hosted route is simpler. Upscaling a 768p local result with a separate tool is possible but is a different pipeline from the proprietary 2K module, and quality will differ.

• Does the community license permit your use, including commercial use? MiniMax's post names the license; this post does not summarise its terms.
• Is 768p enough for your delivery? Anything larger depends on a module that is not yet released.
• Can you absorb moderation behavior? The post says content moderation applies.
• Do you need the missing H3-Context-IR component? It is not included.

The announcement draws a line between what you can download and what MiniMax keeps running itself. That line is common in open releases, and it is the reason a headline like open source can mislead a buyer who needs a specific output size. Read the parts list first, then match each part to the resolution you need, and only then plan hardware.

On Sume, the choice is simpler: pick minimax-h3 for native 768p or minimax-h3-max for its listed tiers, and the provider runs the hosted pipeline for you.