TL;DR
- The license is the MiniMax H3 Community License Agreement, dated August 2, 2026, issued by Nanonoble Pte. Ltd. (MiniMax's licensing entity).
- Free to use, including commercially, for organizations under $20M/year in revenue. Over that, you need MiniMax's written authorization.
- The license territory — the Applicable Territory — is worldwide excluding the US, EU, UK, and South Korea. Using the open weights (or their outputs) is not authorized in those four regions under this agreement.
- If you build a commercial product on H3, you're required to display "MiniMax H3" on the interface — this isn't just branding convention, it's a license term (Section IV.2).
- You cannot use H3 or its outputs to train or improve another AI model (Section V.3).
- MiniMax claims no rights over your outputs — you own what you generate.
- Governing law is Hong Kong SAR, and disputes go through Hong Kong courts.
Who's Actually Covered — The Territory Restriction
What "Applicable Territory" Means
The license defines Applicable Territory as worldwide, excluding the Excluded Territories: the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America. The license only grants rights "solely within the Applicable Territory" — Section V.4 restates it directly: you may not use, reproduce, modify, distribute, or display the MiniMax H3 Works or their outputs outside the Applicable Territory.
In practice: if you're physically operating in one of those four regions, this license does not authorize you to run the open weights or use their outputs there.
Why These Four Regions Specifically
MiniMax hasn't published a single detailed rationale in the license text itself, but the license states MiniMax will "continuously evaluate the applicable laws, regulations and compliance requirements for the Excluded Territories." Press coverage around the release has connected this to shifting generative-video regulation and active copyright litigation involving Hollywood studios in these markets — treat that as reported context, not something confirmed in the license document itself.
What If You're In an Excluded Region?
The license leaves a door open: "should any person in such Excluded Territories be interested in deploying our models, you are welcome to contact us about obtaining a license" — a separate, direct agreement with MiniMax outside the Community License. There's no public self-serve process for this in the license text.
The more practical option for most people in the US, EU, UK, or South Korea: use MiniMax H3 through the hosted product instead of the open weights. A hosted product's own terms of service are a separate arrangement from this open-weight Community License — but if the territorial restriction matters to your specific use case, verify directly with MiniMax rather than assuming.
Commercial Use and the $20M Cap
What Counts
Commercial use is allowed under the Community License with no separate fee — up to $20 million USD (or equivalent) in yearly revenue for your commercial products or services. This appears to be revenue for the business using H3, not revenue specifically attributable to the H3-powered feature — the license text says "your commercial products and services," not "revenue from H3 usage."
What Happens If You Cross $20M
You're required to get prior written authorization from MiniMax, requested by emailing api@minimax.io with the subject line "MiniMax H3 licensing - authorization request." There's no published pricing for this tier in the license itself.
The Required "Powered by MiniMax H3" Display
This is easy to miss: Section IV.2 makes it a requirement, not a suggestion — "You shall prominently display 'MiniMax H3' on the user interface of commercial product or service that uses MiniMax H3." (A related but separate clause, III.3, encourages — doesn't require — a "Powered by MiniMax H3" notice, an AI-generation identifier on outputs, and publishing a blog post about your experience with it.)
Practically, this is a big part of why nearly every third-party MiniMax H3 tool you'll find prominently brands itself with the model's name — it's not just an SEO choice, it's a license condition.
What You Can't Do
No AI Distillation
Section V.3: you may not use MiniMax H3, its outputs, or its results to improve any other AI model (other than MiniMax H3 itself or its own Model Derivatives). The license's definition of "Model Derivatives" specifically calls out distillation methods, intermediate data representations, and training on H3's synthetic outputs as prohibited paths — training your own competing video model on H3-generated clips is exactly what this blocks.
If You Run a Service on Top of H3
Section V.5 puts real operational obligations on anyone who lets third parties generate outputs through a product built on H3: you must implement and maintain reasonable safeguards against Acceptable Use Policy violations, keep a reporting mechanism for suspected abuse, and investigate and act on reports you receive. This is a genuine compliance burden, not boilerplate — worth reading in full if you're building a product rather than using one.
The Acceptable Use Policy — Practical Highlights
Exhibit A lists 20 prohibited use categories. The ones most likely to matter in practice:
- No use outside the Applicable Territory (ties back to the region restriction above)
- No impersonation of a real person without their consent
- No undisclosed AI-generated content in public-facing posts, articles, or bot activity
- No fake reviews or other manufactured engagement
- No use in high-risk automated decisions (healthcare, employment, credit, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, and similar domains)
- No military use
- No unlicensed professional practice (legal, medical, financial advice generated and presented as such)
Who Owns What You Generate
MiniMax "claims no rights over the Outputs you generate" (Section VI.4) — you and your users are responsible for your outputs, and you own them, subject to the use restrictions above still applying to how you use those outputs.
The Fine Print Worth Knowing
- The text encoder is separately licensed. H3's Qwen3-VL-32B-based encoder component is licensed under Apache 2.0, which is far more permissive than the Community License covering the rest of the model — see the Qwen3-VL license if that component matters to your use case.
- No support obligation. MiniMax has no obligation to support, update, or continue developing H3 under this license.
- Governing law is Hong Kong SAR. Any dispute goes through Hong Kong courts, not your local jurisdiction.
- Trademark use is narrow. You get a limited license to use the "MiniMax H3" name for the attribution purposes described above — not a general trademark license.
- Termination on breach ends your rights immediately and requires you to delete all copies of the MiniMax H3 Works in your possession.
Practical Compliance Checklist
| Your situation | What the license says |
|---|---|
| Hobbyist, non-commercial, outside US/EU/UK/Korea | Fully covered, no action needed |
| Commercial product, under $20M revenue, outside excluded regions | Covered — just display "MiniMax H3" on your UI |
| Commercial product, over $20M revenue | Contact api@minimax.io for written authorization first |
| Based in the US, EU, UK, or South Korea | Not authorized to run the open weights locally under this agreement — use the hosted product or contact MiniMax directly about a separate license |
| Want to train your own model on H3 outputs | Not permitted under Section V.3, regardless of region or revenue |
| Building a public-facing product on H3 | You take on safety/moderation obligations under Section V.5 — read that section in full |
FAQ
Can I use MiniMax H3 commercially?
Yes, for free, as long as your commercial products/services generate under $20M/year in revenue and you display "MiniMax H3" on the interface. Above that revenue threshold, you need MiniMax's written authorization.
Can I run MiniMax H3 in the US, EU, UK, or South Korea?
Not under the Community License — those four regions are explicitly excluded from the license's Applicable Territory. Using MiniMax H3 through the hosted product is a separate arrangement under its own terms, and is the practical option for most people in these regions rather than self-hosting the open weights.
What counts toward the $20M revenue cap?
The license text refers to revenue from "your commercial products and services" broadly, not revenue specifically tied to the H3 feature. If this distinction matters for your business, get direct clarification from MiniMax rather than assuming.
Can I train my own AI model using MiniMax H3 or its outputs?
No. Section V.3 explicitly prohibits using MiniMax H3, its outputs, or its results to improve any AI model other than MiniMax H3 itself.
Do I own the videos MiniMax H3 generates?
MiniMax claims no rights over your outputs — you own them, subject to the Acceptable Use Policy still governing how you can use them (no impersonation, no undisclosed AI content in public posts, etc.).
Does this license apply to MiniMax's own hosted app or API?
This Community License specifically governs the open-weight release published on Hugging Face. MiniMax's own hosted consumer and API products operate under their own separate terms of service. If you need certainty on which terms apply to a specific use, confirm directly with MiniMax — don't assume based on this summary alone.
Don't Want to Navigate Any of This?
If the territorial restriction, revenue cap, or safety obligations make self-hosting impractical for you, MiniMax H3 online runs under the hosted product's own terms — no license research required to get started. Free starter credits available.