# Tencent Hy4 API: how to use it on OpenRouter and what it costs

> Hy4 is not free through the API. It costs $0.417 per million input tokens on OpenRouter, and only the preview's weights are public so far.

URL: https://claudegpt.si/news/tencent-hy4-api-openrouter  
Published: 2026-11-04T14:51:34.624Z  
Author: ClaudeGPT Si Newsroom  
Section: AI Models  
Topics: Tencent, Hy4, Open-weight models, API pricing, Language models  
Publisher: ClaudeGPT Si

## Key takeaways

- Hy4 is available on OpenRouter as tencent/hy4 at $0.417 per million input tokens and $1.251 per million output tokens as of November 4, 2026.
- There is no free API tier, but Tencent's WorkBuddy and CodeBuddy have a limited free quota from November 4 to 15.
- Weights are public for Hy4 Preview under Apache 2.0; Tencent says the official Hy4 weights will follow shortly.

You can use the Tencent Hy4 API today through OpenRouter, with an ordinary OpenRouter key and the model ID `tencent/hy4`. It is not free. [OpenRouter lists](https://openrouter.ai/tencent/hy4) $0.417 per million input tokens and $1.251 per million output tokens for it, as of November 4, 2026. The older preview, `tencent/hy4-preview`, costs twice that, and its weights are public.

Tencent released the official Hy4 on November 4, adding image input and computer use to the text-only August preview. We covered the launch in [Tencent releases Hy4 with vision and computer use, weights to follow](https://claudegpt.si/news/tencent-hy4-release-vision-computer-use). This page covers what a developer needs: how to call it, what it costs, and what you can download.

## How to call Hy4 through OpenRouter

OpenRouter exposes Hy4 through its standard Chat Completions endpoint. You need an OpenRouter API key, sent as a bearer token. This is the example from OpenRouter's page for the official model:

```bash
curl -X POST https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "model": "tencent/hy4",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "What is the meaning of life?"}]
}'
```

To use the preview instead, change the model to `tencent/hy4-preview`. Both pages list `stream`, `tools`, `tool_choice`, `response_format`, `reasoning`, `reasoning_effort`, `temperature` and `max_tokens` among the supported parameters. The preview page also lists sampling options such as `top_p`, `top_k`, `min_p` and `seed`.

OpenRouter says it does not offer EU in-region routing for either model. Errors follow its usual scheme: 402 means you are out of credits, 404 means the model or a provider for it was not found, and 429 means you are rate limited.

## Is Hy4 free?

Not through the API. Neither OpenRouter page shows a free variant, and both bill per token.

Tencent's own free offer is separate. According to [TechNode](https://technode.com/2026/11/04/tencent-launches-hy4-with-vision-and-computer-use-capabilities/), Hy4 is built into Tencent's WorkBuddy and CodeBuddy products with a limited free quota from November 4 to November 15. TechNode also reports a 50% discount on Tencent Cloud's TokenHub through December 31.

## Hy4 API price

| Model ID | Input, per million tokens | Output, per million tokens | Providers listed |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `tencent/hy4` | $0.417 | $1.251 | Tencent Cloud |
| `tencent/hy4-preview` | $0.834 | $2.501 | GMICloud, AtlasCloud, Cohere, DeepInfra, NovitaAI, SiliconFlow, Tencent Cloud |

Prices are from OpenRouter on November 4, 2026. Both pages mention one more rate that the text I read does not show, and OpenRouter says Tencent Cloud bills by UTC time of day, so the listed price may apply to only part of the day.

One discrepancy: TechNode reports the standard Hy4 price as $0.834 input and $2.501 output, the same as the preview. That matches the preview row above, not the official model's. Check the live OpenRouter page before you budget. A 50% TokenHub discount would explain a gap, but no source I read says so.

## Are the Hy4 weights available?

The preview's weights are. The [model card on Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/tencent/Hy4-Preview) lists an Apache 2.0 license, a 770 billion parameter mixture-of-experts model (which runs only part of its network for each token) with 49 billion active per token, and a 1 million token context window. There is a BF16 version and an FP8 version. Tencent calls it an early version and says it can reason longer than needed and over-verify its own work.

Running it yourself is heavy. The card gives vLLM and SGLang examples with 8-way tensor parallelism, and sets reasoning to "high" by default. Passing `reasoning_effort` as `no_think` gives direct answers.

For the official Hy4, the weights are not out. TechNode says Tencent will release them, with a system card, "shortly". No date or license has been given. Tencent's research page for Hy4, hy.tencent.ai/research/hy4, did not load for me, so the details here come from OpenRouter, Hugging Face and TechNode.

## What we don't know yet

- Whether the official weights will carry the preview's Apache 2.0 license.
- Whether the price on OpenRouter is the one Tencent intends to charge long term.
- How the official model scores on independent benchmarks. None were available on launch day.
- The date and price of the cheaper Hy4 Flash that Tencent says is coming.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Tencent Hy4 free?

Not through the API. OpenRouter charges per token for both Hy4 and Hy4 preview. TechNode reports a limited free quota inside Tencent's WorkBuddy and CodeBuddy from November 4 to 15.

### What is the Hy4 model ID on OpenRouter?

The official model is tencent/hy4. The earlier preview is tencent/hy4-preview. Both use the standard Chat Completions endpoint.

### Are the Hy4 weights open?

The Hy4 preview weights are on Hugging Face under Apache 2.0. For the official Hy4, TechNode says Tencent will release weights and a system card shortly.

### How much does the Hy4 API cost?

OpenRouter lists $0.417 per million input tokens and $1.251 per million output tokens for tencent/hy4, and $0.834 and $2.501 for the preview, as of November 4, 2026.

## Sources

- [Tencent: Hy4](https://openrouter.ai/tencent/hy4), OpenRouter
- [Tencent: Hy4 preview](https://openrouter.ai/tencent/hy4-preview), OpenRouter
- [Hy4-preview model card](https://huggingface.co/tencent/Hy4-Preview), Tencent on Hugging Face
- [Tencent launches Hy4 with vision and computer-use capabilities](https://technode.com/2026/11/04/tencent-launches-hy4-with-vision-and-computer-use-capabilities/), TechNode