DALL-E (Discontinued) vs Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3)
Which one should you pick? Here's the full breakdown.
DALL-E (Discontinued)
OpenAI's DALL-E 2 and DALL-E 3 -- DEPRECATED. API shuts down May 12, 2026. DALL-E 3 already removed from ChatGPT in December 2025. See alternatives: Nano Banana 2, Midjourney, FLUX.2 [klein], Ideogram
Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3)
Tencent's Hy3 Preview launched 2026-04-23 -- 295B total / 21B active MoE, 256K context, open-sourced on HuggingFace under tencent/Hy3-preview. Cheapest frontier-class API at ~1.2 RMB per million input tokens. Integrated into Yuanbao, WeChat, QQ
| Category | DALL-E (Discontinued) | Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 9.0 | 7.0 |
| Output Quality | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Value | 1.0 | 9.5 |
| Features | 3.0 | 8.0 |
| Overall | 5.0 | 8.1 |
Pricing Comparison
| Feature | DALL-E (Discontinued) | Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | No | Yes |
| Starting Price | N/A | $0 |
Which Should You Pick?
Pick DALL-E (Discontinued) if...
- ✓Easier to use (9 vs 7)
Historical context only. If you have an API integration with DALL-E, migrate before May 12, 2026. Choose from: GPT Image inside ChatGPT (direct replacement), Nano Banana 2 (best text-in-image), Midjourney (best artistic), FLUX.2 [klein] (best open-weight), or Ideogram (strong text).
Visit DALL-E (Discontinued)Pick Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) if...
- ✓Better value for money (9.5/10)
- ✓More features (8 vs 3)
- ✓Has a free tier
Chinese-market builders, multilingual products that need strong CN performance, and cost-sensitive developers who want frontier-class quality at sub-DeepSeek pricing. Also anyone watching the open-weights field who wants Tencent's distribution-backed entry on the bench.
Visit Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3)Our Verdict
Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) is the clear winner here with 8.1/10 vs 5.0/10. DALL-E (Discontinued) isn't bad, but Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) outperforms it across the board. Pick DALL-E (Discontinued) only if historical context only.