MiniMax H3 Max reference-to-video: what the reserve leaves out

For minimax-h3-max reference-to-video, Sume's catalog says the job is billed as output seconds at list price times 1.25, and that the provider's reference-token overage is not reserved. In plain terms: the hold at submit is built from seconds and resolution, not from how heavy your reference files are.

That is a modeling note for a budget, not a reason to avoid references. It means you should treat the reserve as the main number and verify the final charge on a few real jobs before you run hundreds.

What is reserved and what is billed

Sume admits a video job in three steps: admit, reserve, capture. The reserve holds list times 1.25 for the request you submitted. The captured amount is what you read back as usage.cost on the poll response.

A safe way to test

Run three jobs with the same prompt and different reference loads: one image, five images, nine images plus a short video. Read usage.cost on each completed job and compare it with the number the catalog quote predicts. If the three match, your budget model holds. If they drift, add a margin to the batch estimate instead of trusting the per-second math alone.

Pin the resolution while you test. Going from 768p to 1080p raises the rate on its own, which would hide a reference-related change.

Keep the balance above the reserve

A workspace with a balance under the reserve gets a 402 insufficient_credits at submit, before any compute runs. A failed job refunds its reserve. Keep a buffer for the part the reserve does not cover, and stop a batch on the first 402 instead of retrying through it.

What to log per job

A small ledger makes the gap visible without any extra tooling.

The point of the log is to turn an unknown into a measured number. After twenty jobs you will know whether reference weight moves your cost, and you can put a margin on the estimate based on data.

• The job id, resolution and duration you requested.
• The number of reference images, videos and audio files.
• usage.cost from the completed job.
• The quote you computed before submitting, so you can see the difference per job.