Solar Mini 4: 7 Ways Businesses Use This Free AI Model

Solar Mini 4 is Upstage's new compact AI model, and for a limited window you can run it free inside Hermes Agent on Nous Portal.

If you run a business, an agency or a content channel, the question isn't whether it tops a leaderboard.

The real question is which everyday jobs you can hand to a fast, free model so your expensive models only touch the work that pays.

I tested it on video, so I'll show you what it is, how to get it running, and the practical ways a business can actually use it.

What Solar Mini 4 Is, In Plain English

Solar Mini 4 is a small, fast language model made by Upstage, an AI company based in South Korea.

It uses a mixture-of-experts design, with 35 billion parameters in total and only 3 billion switched on for each step.

That's why it replies quickly and why it's cheap to serve.

Upstage's docs list a 512K-token context window, which is enough to read very long documents in one go.

It supports Korean, English and Japanese, and it can call tools and return structured outputs.

Artificial Analysis gives it a score of 24 on its Intelligence Index, and in my video I said that puts it above models with ten times the active parameters.

Upstage released it on 22 September 2026, and the weights are not public, so you use it through an API or a hosted service.

Who Makes Solar Mini 4 And What It Costs A Business

Upstage builds and sells Solar Mini 4 through its own console and API.

The standard Upstage price is $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens, with cached input at $0.01 per million.

Upstage was running 70% off through 10 October (UTC) when I checked its console.

OpenRouter lists it at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens.

For the next couple of weeks, though, the best price is zero.

Nous Portal is offering Solar Mini 4 free for two weeks inside Hermes Agent, and Upstage's own Playground lets anyone chat with it in a browser without an API key.

Way to access Solar Mini 4	Cost	Best for a business
Nous Portal free variant in Hermes Agent	Free during the two-week window	Running real agent jobs at no cost while you test
Upstage Console Playground	Free, no API key needed	A quick feel for quality before you commit
Upstage API	$0.10 in and $0.40 out per million tokens	Production work straight from the maker
OpenRouter	$0.05 in and $0.20 out per million tokens	Teams already routing models through OpenRouter

I'm not going to promise you a revenue number from a model, because nobody honest can.

What I can tell you is where a cheap, fast model saves time and spend in a real business.

The Business Problem Solar Mini 4 Solves

Most businesses that start with AI agents make the same mistake.

They run every task through the most expensive model they can find.

That feels safe, but it means paying top prices for news checks, summaries and first drafts that a smaller model handles fine.

The new way is to split the work into lanes.

Your strongest model takes the hard thinking, and a fast, cheap model like Solar Mini 4 takes the repetitive jobs.

That split is how you keep an always-on agent affordable, and it's the same idea behind the AI automation playbook for small businesses on this site.

🔥 Want the exact agent setups I use for business tasks? Inside the AI Profit Boardroom you get Hermes Agent courses, ready-made workflows and four coaching calls a week with 3,400+ members building real automations. → Get access here

How To Get Solar Mini 4 Running For Your Business

You can be up and running in a few minutes on either route.

Route one: Hermes Cloud

Hermes Cloud lets you deploy a Hermes Agent instance in the cloud, so nothing needs installing on your team's laptops.

Sign in at portal.nousresearch.com/cloud.
Create a new agent.
Open the model section and scroll down.
Click the "Free" filter.
Choose Upstage Solar Mini 4 and save.

Route two: Hermes Desktop

Hermes Desktop is better if you want to compare models side by side.

Create a new profile and name it "solar mini 4".
Pick Nous Portal as the provider.
Refresh the models list.
Select Solar Mini 4 from the free models.

I keep one profile per model so I can switch and test the same job across models in seconds.

The full click-by-click setup lives in my Solar Mini 4 Hermes walkthrough, including the dashboard and the Agent OS.

The setting that protects your budget

Nous Portal lists a free Solar Mini 4 and a paid Solar Mini 4.

When you set the main model in the Hermes dashboard, type "solar", choose Nous Portal and pick the free variant.

The free model ID ends in ":free", while the paid one costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens on Nous Portal.

Picking the paid one by mistake won't break anything, which is exactly why it's easy to miss.

7 Ways A Business Can Use Solar Mini 4

These are the jobs I'd hand to Solar Mini 4 first, based on what I saw it do and what Upstage built it for.

1. Daily industry news briefings

I asked it for AI automation news from the last seven days, and it came back fast with a breakdown, sources and a "what stands out" section.

It even flagged an Oracle launch I hadn't heard of.

A business owner can run that every morning for their own industry and read it over coffee.

2. Research summaries for client work

Agencies spend hours turning long pages into short briefs.

With a 512K-token context window, Solar Mini 4 can take long documents and pull out the key points.

A person should still check the summary before it goes to a client.

3. First drafts of routine emails and posts

It's quick enough to draft follow-ups, newsletters and social captions in seconds.

Your team edits the draft, and your expensive model never gets touched.

4. Korean, English and Japanese content

Upstage lists Korean, English and Japanese for both input and output.

If you sell into those markets, that's a cheap way to draft and check content across languages.

5. Sorting and tagging incoming work

Because it supports structured outputs and tool calling, you can ask it to label leads, tickets or files into fixed categories.

Keep a human check on anything that touches money or customers.

6. A second opinion lane next to your main model

I run several Hermes profiles at once, and a free model makes a handy second opinion on a plan or a draft.

If the two models disagree, that's a sign the task needs a closer look.

7. A safe sandbox for training your team

Because the Nous Portal window is free, it's a low-risk way to let staff learn how agents work before you pay for bigger models.

If you're building an agency around this, my notes on how to start an AI agency cover the business side.

Running Solar Mini 4 From One Dashboard

I run everything through my Agent OS, which puts Hermes and my other agents in one place.

In the Hermes tab, I pick the solar mini 4 profile and chat with Hermes on Solar Mini 4 directly.

The manage section also opens the Hermes dashboard, which is where you set the main model.

You can also run hermes dashboard in a terminal if you prefer.

Limits A Business Owner Should Know About Solar Mini 4

Solar Mini 4 is not a frontier model, and it doesn't compete with Claude Opus 5.5 on hard reasoning.

Free models get rate limited, so if you hit a wall, switch the profile to another free model and keep working.

If the model is missing from your list, refresh the models list before you assume it's gone.

The free window on Nous Portal lasts two weeks, so don't promise a client a workflow that depends on it staying free.

Artificial Analysis describes it as very verbose, which matters once you pay per output token.

You can't run it on your own servers, because the weights aren't released.

One viewer said it ran badly for them, so quality clearly varies, and you should test it on your own tasks first.

🔥 Want to see which models we actually trust for client work? We break down new models every week inside the AI Profit Boardroom, with tutorials and coaching calls where you can ask about your own business. → Join the AI Profit Boardroom

Is Solar Mini 4 Worth Adding To Your Business Stack?

For most businesses, yes, as a cheap everyday worker rather than a main brain.

It's fast, it's free right now, and it handles basic agentic tasks like news scans, summaries and drafts.

Pair it with a stronger model for the work that wins or loses you clients.

That split keeps your costs down without lowering the quality of the work your customers see.

Also On Our Network

Solar Mini 4 FAQ For Business Owners

What is Solar Mini 4?

Solar Mini 4 is a compact AI model from Upstage, a South Korean company.

It's a mixture-of-experts model with 35 billion total and 3 billion active parameters, a 512K context window and support for Korean, English and Japanese.

Can my business use Solar Mini 4 for free?

Yes, during the two-week free window on Nous Portal you can run it inside Hermes Agent at no cost.

Upstage's Playground is also free to try without an API key, but for ongoing production use you'd pay the API price.

How much does Solar Mini 4 cost after the free period?

Upstage lists $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.40 per million output tokens, and OpenRouter lists $0.05 and $0.20.

Nous Portal's paid variant is listed at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens.

What business tasks is Solar Mini 4 good at?

It's good at fast, repetitive work like news briefings, summaries, first drafts, multilingual drafts and sorting tasks into categories.

Keep a stronger model and a human check for client-facing or high-stakes work.

Is Solar Mini 4 good enough for client work?

It's good enough for drafts and research that a person reviews, but it isn't frontier level.

I wouldn't send its output to a client without a check, and one viewer reported poor results, so test it on your own tasks.

How do I avoid paying for Solar Mini 4 by accident?

In the Hermes dashboard, set the main model by typing solar, choosing Nous Portal and selecting the free variant.

The free model ID ends in :free, and the paid one does not.

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About Julian

I'm Julian Goldie, an SEO entrepreneur, author and founder of the AI Profit Boardroom, which has 3,400+ members.

I help business owners scale with AI agents, automation and SEO.

I've built a 7-figure agency, Goldie Agency, with a team of around 50 people.
I've grown a YouTube channel to 400,000+ subscribers.
I wrote the Amazon best-sellers "SEO Link Building Mastery" and "Agency Marketing Mastery".
My Udemy courses have taught over 50,000 students.

→ Get my best AI training inside the AI Profit Boardroom

Give your team one repetitive job this week, run it through the free variant, and you'll see quickly where Solar Mini 4 fits in your business.