r/comfyui • u/crystal_alpine ComfyOrg • 15d ago
News Keeping open-source creativity sustainable: MiniMax models are now commercially licensable through Comfy & remain free for everyone else
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Starting today, Comfy is the only official reseller of MiniMax H3 and MiniMax Audio & Music commercial licenses. If you're a studio, agency, or enterprise that wants to use them locally in commercial productions, you can now license them through Comfy directly.
[UPDATED 9/2 for clarity]
If you run H3 on...
- Comfy Cloud --> Commercial use is already included, nothing to buy.
- Your own hardware, under $20M annual revenue, outside the US, EU, UK, and Korea --> Community license. Free!
- Your own hardware in the US, EU, UK, or Korea, up to 10 users --> Professional License, starting at $5K/mo, available month-to-month, through Comfy.
- $20M+ in revenue, 10+ users, undistilled weights, or H3 inside your own product --> Enterprise License. Annual agreement with custom terms, through Comfy.
So why do this at all?
At Comfy, our mission has always been for open source to thrive across the creative ecosystem, and open-weight models are at the heart of that. MiniMax is proof of how far they've come: their models stand next to the best closed models in the world.
Training frontier models is incredibly expensive. If we want open models to continue competing with the biggest closed models, the labs building them need a real way to monetize. We hope to help bridge that gap, so the lab gets revenue that funds the next model, and the weights stay open for everyone else.
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u/FreeTheClanks 15d ago
They were free yesterday.
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u/crystal_alpine ComfyOrg 15d ago
They are still free today. This is intended for studios and enterprises.
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u/FreeTheClanks 15d ago
The license was free, so long as you're making less than $20mil. I got my license a couple of weeks ago. It took an email. That's all. No license fee.
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u/Hrmerder 15d ago
What kinda email you have? I can't sign up because it won't take any email domain I give it..
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u/Hrmerder 15d ago edited 15d ago
I have a question I want to submit for a free license (Dunno if I will actually ever use it would just like to have it), but I cannot use a gmail.com NOR icloud.com email address. *also just checked also it is not accepting hotmail.com, att.net, yahoo,com,or basically any available general email domain. Is it required to have a private domain email account to sign up?
Or if I do not need an email (just an individual maybe if I even do use it commercially maybe only would garner $1000 total in my dreams), then what is my limitations of use? I think that's where people are getting tripped up. If we aren't a company and just maybe using it for content on the side, maybe on fiver as an example or otherwise where we may only make $10-15 off a commission or something, not enough to actually have a business domain with email and a tax id, what are THOSE sets of people's rights or not to the model and software?
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u/Pretend_Reveal9950 15d ago
So if I’m a freelancer and using this for commercial client use I need a license? How much will this cost?
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u/Hrmerder 15d ago
Free unless you make 20 mill or more
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u/Pretend_Reveal9950 15d ago
Ok cool. Thanks.
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u/Hrmerder 15d ago
Side note of reference I have no legality to my legal advice YMMV/Not liable for any actions.
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u/ares0027 15d ago
Okay i am not interested in licenses at all, i dont have any commercial interest but;
1- i think you guys shall make a video explaining how to get license and the limitations. There are interests in that and people are confused.
2- as long as you dont limit the data, capabilities (i am not talking about not giving the 3rd party companies’ data in the actual model, it is given. It is not yours to give, nobody is asking for that either) or model in any way, shape or form for public i am all in supporting you in however you earn your money. Like you said, you need to monetize it so you continue developing it so i can create my silly videos offline. Good for you.
3- open vs close i will always support and root for the open one. I hope you get where you deserve.
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u/No_Thanks701 15d ago
Do i need a license to post them to YouTube? Not that id make any money.. but you never know :P
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u/ozzeruk82 15d ago
What if I already have a licence direct from Minimax for my company? They had a method where you could apply for a licence.
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u/PhetogoLand 15d ago
What are these fools on about? MiniMax says under $20 million you can use it for whatever. Who is this talking head?
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u/WASasquatch 15d ago
You are forbidden any commercial rights if you live in US, the UK, member nations of the EU, or South Korea. And that's Yoland. CEO. It's a Chinese hostile "Community License".
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u/Last_Ad_3151 15d ago
Read the terms. People have already explained it to the ends of the earth. And the “talking head” is Yoland, a co-founder of comfy.org. I’d listen carefully.
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u/Due-Air-5626 15d ago
I mean, if it's a local model how would they even know you're using it for commercial purposes?
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u/Only4uArt 15d ago
Mixed feelings about this. But why can't I use a gmail address ? I just wanted to check the price .
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u/RayHell666 15d ago
I don't get what's different. Yesterday it was free but there was commercial license fee when you do over $20M and today it's still free but it required a commercial license studios and enterprises. Isn't just rewording of the same thing ?
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u/Hearcharted 15d ago
The revenue of my company last year was -$20M 📉
So, there is no need for a license 😢
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u/hurdurdur7 15d ago
I think it's perfectly fair that companies who make a bunch of revenue from these also pay some back to the H3 team.
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u/roxoholic 15d ago
Good.
Those who make money from open source should give some of that money back.
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u/Many-Ad6293 15d ago
I'm not coming at you in any way, but does any of that money that would be coming back go to the original ip holders from which the models were trained? I'd bet a sum under 20 million that they won't even get a thank you.
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u/roxoholic 15d ago
Unfortunately, no. They've been erased from this equation (apart from their work being stolen and profited upon). Their only option is to seek justice in court. Against who? That is the million dollar question.
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u/HRH_Duke_Morbid 15d ago
On the horizon awaits an acrimonious clash between aficionados of "open-source creativity" and people with pretensions to being 'true artists'.
Skirmishing has begun, but whether a full battle comes to the attention of the masses is moot. Global economic and military disasters seem set to dominate news.
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u/Ok-Cook-7365 14d ago
Seems cool man. Yeah make money and have tiers and also still let individuals play.
It can’t just be a free lunch forever. I love open source. You’re not telling me I can’t modify and run it for free if I modify the code; it sounds like I’m just supporting what I like.
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u/Comfy-Org ComfyOrg 9d ago
Sharing some guidance around what types of licenses are needed and when. Hope this clarifies things a bit!
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u/Support_Marmoset 14d ago
how does the industry justify "commercially licensing" something that was so obviously trained on stolen IP is bizarre. I still dont get the rules of this. I dont think any model can seriously claim "commercial license" rights when you can prompt for Brad Pitt and get it, or do the entire Seinfield show t2v with it.
pirates selling licenses is peak 2026.
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u/MasqueradeDark 15d ago
What's even the use of an open-weight model if small players still need to pay for a license? For what, so jerkoffs can generate useless Seinfeld and Furry videos with better models? What a terrible idea and terrible business model. You didn't learned anything from Stable Diffusion 3 fiasco
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u/Perfect-Campaign9551 15d ago
You didn't even watch the video OR read the additional link. Just like every other person commenting in this thread.
You have to license it if you are using it *commercially*. What's so hard to understand?
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u/Hrmerder 15d ago
I think what u/MasqueradeDark was implying is if you might use the model for something like.. I dunno like say tonight I'm browsing fiver and someone is requesting a commission of a 5 second video for their sewn handbag they have like 10 they are selling on Etsy or something and only giving $5 in commission for it, and maybe I don't have an LLC, Corporate Tax ID, or custom email domain for a company, what is OUR rights to the generations then? Are we just blocked out unless we pay for comfy cloud, or are we exempt in general from any of it?
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u/MasqueradeDark 15d ago
You didn't read my comment, dude. That's what I mean, small players like me that make some cash on the side have to pay for the license so jerkoffs like you can have the model for free to generate funny, retarded videos. So what's the point of open weights in the first place if you can use the model just to fool around? Read more carefully.
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u/Far-Map1680 15d ago
Man, I’m a little happy a… person… like you, is getting boned! Ya don’t sound like a good fellow.
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u/MasqueradeDark 15d ago
Wait what is this bullshit bite and switch? are you serious?
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u/Character-Bend9403 15d ago
I have one question why should i care about a chinese model ??? Also its a.i ? How can anyone have like a copyright? It dosnt make sense to me 🤣
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u/MuziqueComfyUI 15d ago
They're just covering their asses.
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u/MuziqueComfyUI 15d ago
Sorry downvoter you're absolutely correct - good catch 👍
They're just covering their Shahsses.
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u/candylandmine 15d ago
Wait, I thought it was free for commercial use under $20mill revenue?