Tencent Hunyuan

Tencent's open and hosted AI models for text, image, and video

Hand-reviewed by the Toolglade team·Updated Aug 2026

chatbots#llm#video-generation#open-source#multimodal

Free plan Claimed API Self-hosted Mobile app

Toolglade’s take

Hunyuan is one of the more developer-friendly Chinese model families thanks to its aggressive open-sourcing and class-leading open video generation, plus very low API pricing. The trade-offs are a sprawling, sometimes confusing model lineup, vendor-sourced benchmarks, a China-centric consumer app, and the data-residency and regulatory concerns that come with any Chinese cloud AI for Western enterprises.

About Tencent Hunyuan

Tencent Hunyuan is a broad AI model family covering text, image, 3D, and video, delivered through the Yuanbao consumer app, the Tencent Cloud API, and open-weight releases. It is best known for open-sourcing high-quality video generation (HunyuanVideo) and for very low per-token pricing, making it a strong pick for cost-sensitive developers and creators, with the usual caveats about vendor benchmarks and China-cloud data residency.

Tencent Hunyuan is Tencent's in-house foundation-model suite, covering large language models plus image, 3D, and video generation. It stands out for how much it open-sources: several models, including the HunyuanVideo generator and the HY3 text model, have been released publicly, some under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, alongside very low per-token pricing for hosted API access. On the text side, the HY3 model (reported in 2026) is a Mixture-of-Experts design with a 256K-token context window and selectable inference modes, positioned as a cost-efficient option for agentic and coding tasks. On the generative-media side, HunyuanVideo and its image-to-video and higher-resolution successors have drawn attention for cinematic quality and bilingual (Chinese and English) prompting. As with other Chinese labs, benchmark and parameter claims come largely from Tencent and third-party aggregators and should be read as claims. Hunyuan reaches users through three channels: the consumer Yuanbao assistant app, the Tencent Cloud API for developers and enterprises, and open-weight releases on Hugging Face and GitHub for self-hosting. This makes it attractive to developers and creators who want free, high-quality open video and image generation, though the consumer experience is China-centric and Western enterprises face the usual data-residency and regulatory considerations.

TL;DR

Tencent Hunyuan is Tencent's suite of AI models for text, image, 3D, and video, delivered via the Yuanbao app, Tencent Cloud API, and open-weight releases. It is best known for open-sourcing strong video generation (HunyuanVideo) and for very low per-token API pricing. The lineup is broad and fast-moving, and benchmark claims are vendor-sourced. It suits cost-conscious developers and creators, with China-cloud caveats for Western enterprises.

Company overview

Hunyuan is developed by Tencent Holdings Ltd. (HKEX: 0700), one of the world's largest technology companies, with businesses spanning gaming, social, fintech, and cloud.

As an internal product, Hunyuan has no separate venture funding; it is built and operated by Tencent and served through Tencent Cloud, with open models distributed via Hugging Face and GitHub.

Product features

Hunyuan covers text generation (including the MoE-based HY3 with a 256K context window), image generation, 3D generation, and text-to-video and image-to-video generation up to 1080p. Several models are open-sourced, some under Apache 2.0.

Access is available three ways: the Yuanbao consumer app, the Tencent Cloud API on very low per-token pricing, and open-weight downloads for self-hosting.

Target market

Chinese consumers via Yuanbao, global developers and creators via open models, and enterprises via Tencent Cloud. The consumer experience is China-centric while the open models have broad international use.

Buyer personas

End users

Developers, creators, and researchers using open Hunyuan models for video and image generation, plus Chinese consumers using the Yuanbao app.

Buyers

Engineering and platform teams selecting a low-cost LLM API or an open video/image model to self-host.

Key influencers

ML engineers, generative-media specialists, and cost-focused platform leads.

Ideal customer profile

A developer team or creative studio wanting free or very low-cost, high-quality multimodal generation that can be self-hosted or accessed cheaply via API.

Funding & performance

No separate funding disclosed for Hunyuan; it is an internal product of Tencent Holdings Ltd., a publicly traded company (HKEX: 0700).

Pros & cons

Pros

Aggressive open-sourcing of video, image, and text models
Class-leading open-source video generation (HunyuanVideo)
Very low per-token API pricing
Long 256K context and efficient MoE design in HY3
Apache 2.0 licensing on key models enables commercial self-hosting
Backed by Tencent's scale and cloud infrastructure
Genuine multimodal breadth (text, image, 3D, video)

Cons

Consumer experience (Yuanbao) is China-centric
Video generation is compute-heavy to self-host
Benchmark and performance claims are vendor or aggregator-sourced
Data-privacy and geopolitical concerns for Western enterprises
Subject to Chinese content regulation
Fragmented product lineup with many models and versions
English documentation and support weaker than Western rivals

Pricing plans

Open-weight models

Free (self-hosted)

Download from Hugging Face / GitHub
Several models under Apache 2.0
Self-host on your own GPUs

API (Tencent Cloud / providers)

From ~$0.06/1M input tokens

HY3 and other Hunyuan models
256K context on HY3
Usage-based per-token billing

Yuanbao consumer app

Free

Chat and reasoning
AI video and image features
Mobile and web access

Key features

API

Mobile app

Self-hosted

Multi-language

Integrations

Tencent Cloud, Hugging Face, GitHub, Tencent ecosystem apps

Input types

text, image

Output types

text, image, video

Best For

Open-source video generation, Low-cost LLM API usage, Multimodal content creation, Self-hosting open models

Compare key features

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Feature

Tencent Hunyuan

GLM (Z.ai)

Qwen

Pricing

Freemium

Free plan

Yes

Free trial

Yes

API

Yes

Self-hosted

Yes

Frequently asked questions

Is Tencent Hunyuan open source?+

Partly. Several Hunyuan models, including HunyuanVideo and the HY3 text model, have been open-sourced, some under Apache 2.0, while other tiers remain hosted-only via Tencent Cloud.

Can Hunyuan generate video?+

Yes. HunyuanVideo and its successors support text-to-video and image-to-video generation at up to 1080p, with cinematic camera motion and bilingual Chinese/English prompts.

How much does the Hunyuan API cost?+

It is among the cheapest available, with the HY3 model reported starting around $0.06 per million input tokens. Exact rates vary by provider and model; verify current pricing with Tencent Cloud.

What is Tencent Yuanbao?+

Yuanbao is Tencent's consumer AI assistant app powered by Hunyuan models, offering chat and AI media features, primarily aimed at the Chinese market.

Is Hunyuan a good fit for Western enterprises?+

The open models are widely used globally, but the hosted consumer and cloud products are China-centric and carry data-residency and regulatory considerations for Western enterprises.