Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan) vs Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance)

Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance) edges out Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan) by 0.7 points (8.8 vs 8.1) -- a A-tier vs A-tier split that's narrow but real. Not a blowout; both belong on a shortlist. The score gap shows up most clearly in the categories that matter for Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance)'s strengths, so if those categories are your priority, the lead translates.

Pricing-wise, both tools have a free tier (Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan) starts $0, Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance) starts $0), so you can test either without committing. Compare what each free tier actually unlocks -- usage caps, model access, and feature gates differ a lot more than the headline price suggests, especially as both vendors have tightened limits in 2026.

By use case: pick Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan) when chinese-market builders, multilingual products that need strong cn performance, and cost-sensitive developers who want a cheap open-weight moe api (hy3 at $0. Pick Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance) when short-form content creators already using capcut (tiktok, instagram reels, youtube shorts). The two tools aren't fighting for the same person -- they're aiming at adjacent jobs that occasionally overlap. If you're squarely in Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance)'s lane, the tier-list ranking and the use-case fit point the same direction; if you're in Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan)'s lane, the score gap matters less than the fit.

Bottom line: Seedance 2.5 (ByteDance) is the safer default for most readers, but Tencent Hy3 / Hy4 preview (formerly Hunyuan) is competitive enough that the tie-breaker is your specific workload, not the spec sheet.