IBM Granite 4.0 vs Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3)
Which one should you pick? Here's the full breakdown.
IBM Granite 4.0
IBM's enterprise-focused open-weight family -- Granite 4.0 hybrid Mamba-2 + transformer architecture (70-80% memory reduction vs pure transformer), 3B to 32B sizes, Apache 2.0. First open model family to secure ISO 42001 certification. Nano 350M runs on CPU with 8-16GB RAM. 3B Vision variant landed 2026-04-01
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 | IBM Granite 4.0 | Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of Use | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Output Quality | 8.0 | 8.0 |
| Value | 9.5 | 9.5 |
| Features | 8.5 | 8.0 |
| Overall | 8.2 | 8.1 |
Pricing Comparison
| Feature | IBM Granite 4.0 | Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) |
|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| Starting Price | $0 | $0 |
Which Should You Pick?
Pick IBM Granite 4.0 if...
Regulated-industry enterprises (healthcare, finance, government) who need Apache 2.0 open-weight models with ISO 42001 certification. Also ideal for edge deployments where Granite Nano (350M / 1.5B) is one of the few open models that runs realistically on CPU. And for any Mamba-hybrid research or low-memory production use where the 70-80% memory reduction actually changes the economics.
Visit IBM Granite 4.0Pick Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) if...
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
IBM Granite 4.0 and Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) are extremely close overall. Your choice comes down to specific needs -- IBM Granite 4.0 is better for regulated-industry enterprises (healthcare, finance, government) who need apache 2, while Hunyuan 3 (Tencent Hy3) works best for chinese-market builders, multilingual products that need strong cn performance, and cost-sensitive developers who want frontier-class quality at sub-deepseek pricing.