The AI video generation space has a naming crisis that's causing real confusion in the market. Three separate models from different companies are being called "O3" or "03," making it nearly impossible for creators, developers, and procurement teams to know which tool they're actually evaluating. Kuaishou's Kling O3 (officially called Video 3.0 Omni), MiniMax's H3 (sometimes called Hailuo 03), and OpenAI's o3 reasoning model are three completely different products with overlapping names that routinely appear in search results for the wrong tool.

Why Are These Models Getting Mixed Up?

The confusion stems from a combination of naming patterns and market shorthand. MiniMax released its H3 video model on July 31, 2026, just two weeks after launching Music-3.0 on July 16, 2026. Since then, "the new MiniMax 3 model" has had three different live referents: M3 for text and code, Music-3.0 for music generation, and H3 for video. Meanwhile, Kuaishou announced its Video 3.0 Omni model back on February 5, 2026, but the market has standardized on calling it "Kling O3" as shorthand, even though Kuaishou itself never uses that name.

MiniMax's own naming history made the collision inevitable. The company has renamed its video product line four times across four generations. It started with task codes like "T2V-01-Director" in February 2025, shifted to "MiniMax-Hailuo-02" in June 2025, then moved to "MiniMax-Hailuo-2.3" in October 2025, and finally settled on "MiniMax H3" in July 2026. Anyone following the June 2025 naming pattern would reasonably expect "Hailuo-03" next, which is exactly what the community started calling it. That expectation collided head-on with Kuaishou's model.

What Are the Key Differences Between These Models?

Despite their similar names, these models serve different purposes and come from different companies. Understanding the distinctions matters for anyone considering which tool to use or integrate into their workflow.

• MiniMax H3: A video generation model released July 31, 2026, that creates 4 to 15 second clips at up to 2K resolution and 24 frames per second with native stereo audio. It accepts video as input for style and motion reference. The model is available both as a hosted API service and as an open-weight release with territorial restrictions.
• Kling O3 (Video 3.0 Omni): Kuaishou's reference-led video model announced February 5, 2026, that generates video up to 15 seconds long with multilingual audio support including accents and dialects. This model has no open-weight release and comes from a different company entirely.
• OpenAI o3: A reasoning language model released in April 2025 that is completely unrelated to video generation. It was named "o3" rather than "o2" to avoid a trademark clash with the O2 mobile network.

How Does This Confusion Affect Procurement and Pricing?

The naming mix-up creates serious problems for teams trying to evaluate or purchase these tools. MiniMax M3, the company's text and coding model released June 1, 2026, is frequently confused with H3 because M3's model card is tagged with "video" to describe its video understanding capabilities, not its ability to generate video. M3 can watch a clip and write about it, but it cannot create video. When procurement teams search for "MiniMax H3 benchmarks," they often find M3's coding performance scores, which are completely irrelevant.

The pricing implications are even more critical. M3 is billed per token processed, while H3 is billed per second of generated video. A quote built on the wrong model is not slightly inaccurate; it's priced on an entirely different unit. This means a team could receive a cost estimate that bears no relationship to what they'll actually pay.

How to Identify Which Model You're Actually Looking At

The fastest way to distinguish between these models is to check the API string and company affiliation. Here's a practical guide for developers and procurement teams evaluating these tools.

• Check the API endpoint: MiniMax H3 uses the endpoint "/v2/video_generation" and the API model string "MiniMax-H3." MiniMax M3 uses "/v1/chat/completions" or "/anthropic/v1/messages." If you see either of these, you know which product you're dealing with.
• Verify the company name: MiniMax products come from MiniMax Technology. Kling O3 comes from Kuaishou Technology, a Hong Kong-listed Chinese social platform. OpenAI's o3 comes from OpenAI. If the vendor is not explicitly named, search for the official announcement or documentation from the company itself.
• Look at the official vendor name: MiniMax calls its video model "MiniMax H3" on all controlled surfaces, including its platform release notes, video generation documentation, the Hailuo AI web app, and its Hugging Face model card. Kuaishou calls its model "Video 3.0 Omni" in its official announcement. Neither company uses "O3" or "03" as their primary name.

What Does This Mean for the AI Video Market?

The naming confusion reflects a broader challenge in the rapidly evolving AI landscape. As more companies release models with similar capabilities, the market needs clearer naming conventions to prevent costly mistakes. For creators and developers, the lesson is straightforward: always verify the vendor name and check official documentation before making purchasing or integration decisions. A one-letter difference between M3 and H3 might seem minor, but it separates a coding model from a video generator, and the two live behind different API versions on the same host.

MiniMax's H3 has performed well in early evaluations, placing first in video editing and in the top three for both text-to-video and image-to-video on Artificial Analysis's video arenas shortly after launch. However, these rankings shift as new models arrive, so any specific performance rating should be treated as dated unless it includes a timestamp. The key takeaway is that when evaluating any of these models, always confirm you're looking at the right product before making decisions about integration, pricing, or capability assessment.