The closest alternative to R1 0528 is Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) — comparable intelligence (27.1 vs 27.1); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $0.500/M; for more speed, gpt-oss-120b (free) hits 554 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) is the closest alternative to R1 0528, with an Intelligence Index of 27.1 (R1 0528 scores 27.1) at Free per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $0.500 for R1 0528, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to R1 0528 — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.