Head to head · LLM inference · October 2026 research run

Tencent Hy4 vs SambaCloud

SambaCloud scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against Tencent Hy4's 64 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Tencent Hy4 leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do llm inference.

Best model APIs and inference for AI agents · All 1044 models comparisons

Which one, for what

Tencent Hy4 B

Best for Long-context agent work, coding and office or finance tasks on a 1M-token context with images, for teams already on Tencent Cloud or happy to verify an account there.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 86 against 67
  • Security & auth, 71 against 61

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where SambaCloud loses 5 points for them

Watch for

Weights, licence and system card are promised but not published; tencent/Hy4 didn't answer on Hugging Face on 11 November

SambaCloud B

Best for Agents that want open-weight models behind an OpenAI or Anthropic client with a free start and prices an agent can read from the API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 46
  • Schema & documentation, 81 against 73
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 52

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Production models get a notice of two to three weeks, and 13 model ids were removed between 9 March and 9 June 2026

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability SambaCloud +39

Tencent Hy4 46

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No public status page (0) and so no incident record to read (5 of 30). Per-model rate limits only in the console and DescribeModelQuota (8 of 15). Six 429 codes, Retry-After and backoff advice (13 of 15). The TokenHub SLA promises 99.5% a month, and Hy4 is Tencent's own model, so the third-party exclusion doesn't apply (10). Released as hy4 on 4 November, a separate id from hy4-preview, with no preview label (10). 0 + 5 + 8 + 13 + 10 + 10 = 46.

SambaCloud 85

Hosted reading. Status page at status.sambanova.ai on Statuspage, with components for the API gateway, the Playground and each model, read from the page itself on 1 November (20). Its history.atom feed, read on 1 November (the 8 October reading came from the /api/ path, which robots.txt disallows, and is struck), has nothing newer than an 8-minute Playground login fault on 25 June 2026, so nothing is posted for the window from 3 August (30). Limits published per model and tier, 20 requests a minute and 20 a day on the free tier, 60 and 12,000 on the Developer tier, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (15). x-ratelimit-* headers on every response, the error table says to retry queue_full after a delay, and the SDKs retry 429 and server errors twice with backoff, per the 8 October check. No Retry-After header was found in the docs or the OpenAPI document (10 of 15). No SLA found on the legal page, re-read on 1 November, or in the terms (0). Three production models are generally available, the rest previews, per the 8 October check (10). 20+30+15+10+0+10 = 85.

Transparency & trust SambaCloud +21

Tencent Hy4 52

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Closed service under the TokenHub terms, but Tencent's release headline calls Hy4 open source while the weights and system card are only promised 'in the coming days', with no licence stated, and tencent/Hy4 didn't answer on Hugging Face on 11 November (14 of 30). Terms and FAQ agree inputs aren't used for training; the privacy policy renders only with JavaScript and wasn't read (15 of 30). Dated retirement notices and shutdown fields (13 of 20). Processing generally in mainland China for the China site, Singapore for the international one (13 of 20). Every benchmark in the release is Tencent's own or a partner's. 14 + 15 + 13 + 13 = 55.

SambaCloud 73

Closed service with clear terms that name the entity and the governing law, and Apache-2.0 SDKs and OpenAPI document (15). The privacy policy is still dated 27 May 2023 and doesn't name SambaCloud or API inputs. A Data Processing Addendum, part of the Terms of Service, is now linked from the legal page (undated). It limits processing of customer personal data to the agreement, its Annex I says prompts, inputs and completions are processed transiently and kept no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring, then deleted, and it deletes customer personal data within 30 days of termination and from backups within 90. The product page's claim, re-read on 1 November, that SambaCloud 'never sees or collects any of your data or user prompts' sits beside that 30-day retention and terms that allow storing content and using query logs (16 of 30, as novita-ai's stated retention periods, below mistral-api's 18 where the DPA and other pages agree). A deprecations page with notice and removal dates back to April 2025, recording MiniMax-M2.7's 1 October removal with a 1 September notice per the 27 October read, though nothing for Mistral Large 3, per the 8 October check (14 of 20). The DPA's Annex III names 24 sub-processors with purpose and location (USA, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia) and promises 30 days' notice of changes, though it doesn't say where inference runs for a given request (18 of 20). 15+16+14+18 = 63.

Agent ergonomics Tencent Hy4 +19

Tencent Hy4 86

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Function calling is marked for hy4 in the model list (18 of 20). Structured output marked (13 of 15). Cache-hit price published, ¥0.3 against ¥6 input (14 of 15). 1M-token context with 960K input and 64K output (15). Batch at half price covered Hy3 and Hy4 preview on 1 November; whether it covers hy4 wasn't re-read (3 of 10). OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs with a changed base URL, plus Tencent Cloud's SDK and CLI for the control plane (8 of 10). Errors with code, messages, upstream status and request ID (15 of 15). 18 + 13 + 14 + 15 + 3 + 8 + 15 = 86.

SambaCloud 67

Model reading of the checklist (tool use, structured output, caching, context, batch, SDKs, errors). Function calling with tool_choice to force a function, on six listed models, and a July 2026 fix for tool calls that were buffered when streaming (17 of 20). json_object and json_schema output, best effort only, with a known failure on DeepSeek-V3.2 recorded in July 2026 (8 of 15). Automatic prompt caching on the MiniMax models only, with cached input on MiniMax-M3.1-Flash at a tenth of the input price on the 1 November pricing page, a 4,096-token minimum and no guaranteed persistence (10 of 15). 131,072-token context on four of six models, 1M on the MiniMax-M3 preview, and output capped at 7,168 tokens on DeepSeek and 3,072 on Llama 3.3 70B (8 of 15). No batch API found in the docs index or the OpenAPI document (0 of 10). Official SDKs for Python and TypeScript, and the OpenAI and Anthropic clients work with a changed base URL (10). Errors carry type, param, code and request_id (14 of 15).

Payments & pricing SambaCloud +15

Tencent Hy4 45

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No machine payment protocol (0). The price page, updated 9 November, lists ¥6 input, ¥0.3 cached and ¥18 output per million tokens, with Hy4 billed at 50% until 31 December 2026 (20). TokenHub's campaign of 1M free tokens per language model, read on 1 November, isn't confirmed for hy4 on the price page, so half (10 of 20, a judgement call). A person signs up with real-name verification (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30. Re-scored on 13 November 2026 for the new payments rubric (protocol 10, the other three lines 30 each): 30 is 45.

SambaCloud 60

No machine payment protocol (0). Per-token prices on the pricing page, read without a login on 1 November, such as gpt-oss-120b at $0.22 in and $0.59 out per 1M tokens (20). Free tier with no payment method, per the 8 October check (20). A person signs up in the console to get a key (0). Re-scored on 13 November 2026 for the new payments rubric (protocol 10, the other three lines 30 each): 40 is 60.

Security & auth Tencent Hy4 +10

Tencent Hy4 71

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Bearer keys limited by model, service, IP range and token quota, long-lived with no rotation (26 of 30). The terms say inputs aren't used to train Tencent Cloud's own models, and Hy4 is first party, so no third party's terms apply (14 of 20). Retention only as long as the service needs, no periods (7 of 15). Per-call audit logs and optional full logs to the customer's CLS (14 of 15). No security.txt; Tencent's TSRC bounty covers Tencent Cloud; no certification checked (10 of 20). 26 + 14 + 7 + 14 + 10 = 71.

SambaCloud 61

Model reading. Bearer keys from the console, up to 25 per user and shown once. No scopes, project limits or rotation guidance were found, and the key travels in a header, never in the URL (18 of 30). The terms let SambaNova access, store and process Customer Content solely to supply the service and for no other purposes, which rules out training without naming it (18 of 20). The DPA's Annex I, read on 1 November, keeps prompts, inputs and completions no more than 30 days for security, fraud and abuse monitoring. No zero-retention option was found in the pages read, and the product page says SambaCloud never sees or collects prompts, against that retention and terms that grant a right to store content and to use query logs (10 of 15, between deepseek-api's 5 and siliconflow's 6 with no period stated and the 15 groq, mistral-api and xai-api take for 30 days with a zero-retention route). The console has a Usage page. No request logs or audit log were found in the docs (5 of 15). The trust centre states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001. No security.txt, disclosure policy or bug bounty was found, and the SDK's SECURITY.md sends service reports to a general address (10 of 20).

Schema & documentation SambaCloud +8

Tencent Hy4 73

Model reading for hy4 on Tencent Cloud TokenHub. Platform facts are the tencent-tokenhub listing's (checked 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. No OpenAPI file for inference; field pages for the OpenAI and Anthropic formats as TokenHub implements them (12 of 25). llms.txt with Markdown copies (10). The model list, updated 9 November, gives hy4's context, input and output limits and marks thinking, structured output, function calling, caching and image understanding; computer use, which Tencent's release names, isn't marked (13 of 20). Typed field pages (10 of 15). Examples in five languages and an error page of 30 codes (14 of 15). Dated release notes, with hy4 added on 4 November (14 of 15). 12 + 10 + 13 + 10 + 14 + 14 = 73.

SambaCloud 81

Public OpenAPI 3.1.1 document, still labelled version 1.2.0 though its content changed on 27 October 2026, with 10 operations and 165 schemas (25). llms.txt at docs.sambanova.ai/docs/llms.txt and a Markdown copy of each page, per the 8 October check (docs.sambanova.ai answered robots.txt with a bot check on 1 November, so it wasn't read) (10). 718 descriptions in the document, with pages for function calling, Responses, Messages and caching. When not to use a route is rarely stated (15 of 20). Typed parameters with 150 enums, and request bodies now declare additionalProperties: false, but JSON schema output is best effort and strict: true has no effect (10 of 15). Code examples in Python and TypeScript, and an errors page with 13 codes and a recovery suggestion for each, per the 8 October check (13 of 15). The spec is versioned in its repository, but the version label didn't move with the 27 October changes, the newest SambaCloud release note seen is 7 July 2026, and the models page disagreed with /v1/models on 8 October (8 of 15). 25+10+15+10+13+8 = 81.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runTencent Hy4SambaCloudEdge
Reliability16%204685SambaCloud +39
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27381SambaCloud +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.28667Tencent Hy4 +19
Security & auth14%17.57161Tencent Hy4 +10
Payments & pricing10%12.54560SambaCloud +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87377SambaCloud +4
Transparency & trust7%8.85273SambaCloud +21
Negative events≤150-5
TotalB 64/100B 67.4/100

Facts side by side

FactTencent Hy4SambaCloud
KindModel APIModel API
VendorTencent (Hy team)SambaNova Systems, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.sambanova.ai/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402nono
LicenceHosted model under the Tencent Cloud TokenHub terms. Tencent says weights and a system card will follow; no licence is stated yetProprietary service under the SambaCloud Terms of Service. The SDKs and the OpenAPI document are Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-11-042026-10-27
Terms last updatedcouldn't be readno date given
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be read2023-05-27
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be readnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be readyes
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be readnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be readnot found in the text
Popularitynone2 stars, 76 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone3.5/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Tencent Hy4

Tencent's flagship model is on TokenHub as hy4, with a 1M-token context, image understanding, function calling and caching, at ¥6 input and ¥18 output per million tokens, half price until the end of 2026. The weights it is called open source for aren't published yet, and every benchmark is Tencent's own.

SambaCloud

Per-token prices are readable without a login, a free tier needs no card, and no incident has been posted since 25 June 2026. A Data Processing Addendum now names 24 sub-processors. Production models get two to three weeks' notice before removal, 13 model ids left between March and June 2026, and the product page's privacy claim contradicts the terms.

Before you call either

Tencent Hy4

  1. Use model id hy4 on TokenHub's OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible endpoints; hy4-preview is a separate, older model
  2. Keep input under 960K tokens and expect at most 64K output
  3. Reuse prompt prefixes: cached input is ¥0.3 against ¥6
  4. Check the price page for the end of the 50% discount on 31 December 2026 before budgeting
  5. Read rate limits from the console or DescribeModelQuota; the public docs don't give them for chat models

SambaCloud

  1. Call GET https://api.sambanova.ai/v1/models at start-up and use only ids it returns. The docs and status page have named models the API no longer serves
  2. Read x-ratelimit-remaining-requests and x-ratelimit-remaining-requests-day on every response. The free tier allows 20 requests a day per model
  3. Treat 429 queue_full and 503 maintenance as retryable after a delay, and 410 model_deprecated as a signal to change model
  4. Validate JSON output yourself. Schema enforcement is best effort and strict: true changes nothing
  5. Drop do_sample before moving to Python SDK 1.14.0 or TypeScript 1.11.0. Those releases removed it

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Tencent Hy4 or SambaCloud?

SambaCloud scores 67.4 (B) on agent readiness against Tencent Hy4's 64 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Tencent Hy4 leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.

Do Tencent Hy4 and SambaCloud need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Tencent Hy4 and SambaCloud without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Tencent Hy4. SambaCloud has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sambanova.ai/v1.

Other comparisons with Tencent Hy4 or SambaCloud

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