AI Lineup
MiniMax
by MiniMax Group (China)
A capable Chinese model for both conversation and longer writing tasks, with a growing international user base.
Free + PaidOpen SourceChatbotMultimodal
Last checked: 21 September 2026
The details
- Current flagship
- MiniMax M3 combines a one-million-token context window with native multimodality for text, images, audio, and video.
- Cost
- Free access is available in MiniMax consumer apps; API access is usage-priced. Check MiniMax's live pricing before budgeting.
- Open weights?
- M3 is published as an open model. ⚠️ MiniMax is a Chinese company, which is relevant for privacy and data-residency decisions.
- Input / Output
- TextImagesAudioand Video; Hailuo provides consumer video generation.
Best for
- AI-generated video (Hailuo)
- Voice & speech applications
- Very long document processing
- Developers wanting frontier quality cheaply
Kevin’s take
“Best known publicly for Hailuo — their video generation tool that's been all over social media. But the underlying M-series models are serious frontier-quality AI. Their video output is genuinely impressive. If you've seen AI-generated video clips on social media lately, there's a decent chance it came from Hailuo.”
— Kevin, formerly of IT Support
Privacy snapshot
Research FirstPrivacy risk: High
A Chinese AI company whose models handle text, voice, and video (its Hailuo video tool is widely used). Capable, frontier-quality, and inexpensive.
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