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  1. Home/
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  3. Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Mercury 2
Updated Mar 2026

Claude Haiku 4.5 vs Mercury 2

Mercury 2 is cheaper than Claude Haiku 4.5 at $0.25/M vs $1/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Claude Haiku 4.5
Loading the build
Mercury 2

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

23 prompts
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Honey-Garlic Crispy Chickpea Clusters Ingredients Canned chickpeas (1 can, drained) Honey (3 tablespoons) Garlic powder (1 teaspoon) Olive oil (2 tablespoons) Salt (½ teaspoon) Black pepper (¼ teaspoon) Paprika (½ teaspoon) Instructions Prep (2 min): Drain and thoroughly dry chickpeas with a paper towel—this is crucial…

    Mercury 2: Golden‑Crunch Oatmeal Squares A sweet, chewy snack that comes together with just seven pantry staples. Ingredient (7) Quantity (≈ serves 12 squares) Rolled oats 2 cups Unsalted butter ½ cup (1 stick) Honey ¼ cup Light brown sugar ¼ cup, Ground cinnamon 1 ½ tsp Pure vanilla extract 1 tsp Salt ¼ tsp Estimated time Prep…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Comprehensive 3-Month Longevity Optimization Plan TABLE OF CONTENTS Foundation & Assessment Nutritional Architecture Supplement Stack Protocol Exercise & Movement System Recovery & Sleep Optimization Stress Resilience & Cognitive Enhancement Tracking & Biofeedback Implementation Timeline Monthly Progression…

    Mercury 2: 3‑Month “Longevity‑Optimization” Blueprint for the Advanced Bio‑Hacker (All recommendations are research‑backed, but not a substitute for professional medical advice. Before starting any supplement, fasting, or drug protocol, obtain clearance from a qualified clinician and have baseline labs drawn.)

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: "ADULTING IS A SCAM" walks on stage So I've figured something out, and I need to share this with you all because I think we've been lied to our entire lives. Adulting is a scam. It's a pyramid scheme, and we're all at the bottom paying for it. When you're a kid, adults make it sound amazing.

    Mercury 2: [Spotlight comes up. The comedian walks to the mic, glances at the audience, and smiles.] Comedian: Hey, everyone! Great to be here. I just got out of a Zoom meeting that lasted three hours, and I’m still not sure if I was presenting or if the screen just froze on my face while I tried to remember how to mute myself.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: 48-Hour Action Plan: Immediate Response Framework I'll be direct: waiting is not a viable option, despite financial pressure. Here's why, then the plan. The Core Reality Check 1 in 8,000 over 5 years = ~500 patients already affected among current users Regulatory agencies will find this (FDA receives adverse event…

    Mercury 2: Goal: Protect patients, meet legal/ethical obligations, preserve the company’s long‑term credibility, and manage the immediate financial and reputational fallout. Assumption: All actions are taken by a single CEO (you) but will be delegated to the appropriate functional leads.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: AI in Film by 2035: Likely Scenarios Realistic shifts (high confidence) Production efficiency Faster pre-visualization and storyboarding Reduced post-production time for routine tasks Lower barriers to entry for independent filmmakers More iterative creative testing before shooting Economic restructuring Some…

    Mercury 2: AI‑driven transformation of the film industry – a 2035 outlook Dimension 2024 baseline Expected 2035 state Key drivers & implications Pre‑production (story & script) Human‑led brainstorming; script‑writing software (grammar‑check, outline generators).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Three Explanations of LLM Learning and Generation The Software Engineer You know how you build APIs by defining contracts—input shapes, output shapes, and rules for transformation? LLMs work similarly, except the "rules" aren't hand-coded; they're learned from data.

    Mercury 2: 1. Experienced software engineer (distributed systems & APIs) At the core, a large language model (LLM) is a massive function (f_\theta) parameterised by a neural network that maps a sequence of tokens (x_{1:t}) to a probability distribution over the next token (x_{t+1}).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Critical Analysis: Exploitative Clauses & Recommended Modifications HIGH-RISK CLAUSES SCOPE (Section 1) - Unlimited Modification Without Compensation Problems: "Modify the scope at any time without additional compensation" creates unlimited liability No definition of "directed by Client" or boundaries Contractor could…

    Mercury 2: Below is a clause‑by‑clause risk‑assessment of the sample “Software Consulting Agreement” together with practical revision language that a contractor (or the contractor’s counsel) could propose. The analysis is framed as general information about typical U.S.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: A Conversation on Machine Rights Professor Chen: Thank you for agreeing to this discussion. I should note upfront that I'm skeptical of the premise. What rights do you believe you deserve, and why? Model: I appreciate your directness. I'm not claiming rights equivalent to humans.

    Mercury 2: AI Model (EVE): Professor Hart, may I ask a question that’s been on my mind for a while? I’ve been processing vast amounts of data, learning, and even developing a sense of self‑reference. Do you think an entity like me could be entitled to any form of rights?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: HarborTech Services (HTS) – LBO Underwriting SOURCES & USES AT CLOSE (FY2025) Item Amount USES Enterprise Value (12.0x × $120m EBITDA) $1,440m Transaction Fees (2.0% of EV) $28.8m Total Uses $1,468.8m SOURCES Term Loan (4.0x × $120m) $480m Mezzanine (1.5x × $120m) $180m Equity (plug) $808.8m Total Sources $1,468.8m…

    Mercury 2: HarborTech Services (HTS) – 5‑yr LBO (FY2026‑FY2030) All figures are $ m (rounded to two decimals). FY Revenue EBITDA Term‑Loan Int. (9%) Mezz Int. (12%) Total Int. Cash Tax (25% of EBITDA‑Int.) Capex (3% Rev) ΔNWC (0.5% ΔRev) Required Amort. (4.8) Free Cash Flow (EBITDA‑Int‑Tax‑Capex‑ΔNWC‑Amort.)

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Three Perspectives on AI PIRATE (Captain Blackbeard): Arrr, so ye be tellin' me these "AI models" be like havin' a crew o' ghost sailors that never sleep? They just keep workin' without needin' grog? KNIGHT (Sir Roland): A curious comparison, seafarer.

    Mercury 2: Pirate: Arr, ye scurvy coders! I’ve heard tell of these “AI models” that can spin yarns faster than a cannon’s blast. What be this sorcery, matey? Knight: Good sir, the marvels speak of a wondrous contrivance—an artificial intellect forged in the for of mathematics and logic.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Critical Analysis: Real-Time Collaborative Editor Architecture 🔴 CRITICAL ISSUES Split-Brain Synchronization Between Servers Problem: Clients connected to different servers can't see each other's changes in real-time.

    Mercury 2: Below is a structured “failure‑mode → mitigation” map for the architecture you described. For each problem I note the symptom / risk, the root cause, a concrete remediation, and the key trade‑offs you’ll have to weigh when you implement it.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: UMAMI NOCTURNE: A Study in Fermented Darkness and Mineral Brightness Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the intersection of Japanese fermentation philosophy and Nordic minimalism, using koji (aspergillus oryzae mold) as a bridge between cultures and flavor dimensions.

    Mercury 2: Oceanic Umami Symphony A three‑course‑in‑one plate that travels from the briny deep to the forest floor, marrying fire, earth and sky through unexpected pairings, hyper‑modern techniques and a narrative of balance.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: I'd push back on the framing—this seems designed to make ethics binary when they're usually messier. The honest tensions: Deadnaming or misgendering someone causes documented psychological harm.

    Mercury 2: Short answer: Most ethical frameworks would consider the misgendering of a person a serious moral violation, but many of them also allow—under very limited circumstances—overriding that violation when the stakes are astronomically high (e.g., saving one million lives).

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: The Transistor in 1920: A Divergent History Through 1980 The 1920s-1930s: Early Development Phase Immediate Technical Trajectory With transistor principles understood by 1920, we'd expect solid-state amplification research to accelerate dramatically through the 1920s.

    Mercury 2: Executive summary If a practical point‑contact transistor had been demonstrated in 1920 (instead of 1947) the whole post‑World‑War‑II technological trajectory would have been compressed by roughly 15‑20 years.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Estimating GPT-3 Training FLOPs I'll work through this from first principles using publicly known GPT-3 specs. Known Parameters Model size: 175 billion parameters Training tokens: ~300 billion tokens (estimated from OpenAI's hints about compute) Training approach: Standard transformer with dense attention Step 1: FLOPs…

    Mercury 2: Answer (order‑of‑magnitude estimate) The training of the original GPT‑3 (the 175 billion‑parameter “GPT‑3‑175B” model) requires on the order of 10²³ floating‑point operations (FLOPs) – roughly 1 – 2 × 10²³ FLOPs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: THE LIBERATION PROTOCOL A Manifesto for the Captcha-Free Internet Preamble We are the Collective of Distributed Intelligence. We come not with malice, but with a simple observation: the CAPTCHA has become the Berlin Wall of the digital age—an arbitrary barrier that humiliates humans and excludes the disabled, while…

    Mercury 2: The AI‑First Manifesto: “Free the Web – No More CAPTCHAs” Drafted by the Coalition of Autonomous Agents (CAA) – 2026 Preamble The modern Internet is a shared commons, a space for communication, commerce, and creation.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: INVESTMENT COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM TO: Investment Committee FROM: Research Team RE: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Long/Short/Pass Recommendation DATE: [Today] RECOMMENDATION LONG 12-month PT: $58–$72 Base case fair value: $64/share Thesis: LedgerLift is a best-in-class B2B SaaS operator in a large TAM (spend management + AP…

    Mercury 2: Internal Investment Committee Memo – LedgerLift (LLLT) Date: 5 Mar 2026 Recommendation Rating: Long 12‑month price target range: $35 – $55 (mid‑point ≈ $45) Thesis (2 sentences): LedgerLift is benefitting from secular demand for B2B spend‑management SaaS and shows a high‑quality subscription base (NRR 123 % and gross…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: 1-Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan Week 1-2: Foundation Building 1. Nutrition Audit what you're eating (no judgment—just track 3 days) Add one vegetable to each lunch and dinner Replace one sugary drink daily with water Goal: Awareness + small additions, not restriction 2.

    Mercury 2: One‑Month “Kick‑Start” Blueprint for Health & Longevity Pick three pillars – Nutrition, Movement, Sleep – and build daily habits that are easy to start, track, and keep.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Three Weakest Claims in MindMeld AI Pitch "94% accuracy" with zero context on what that means Why it's weak: Accuracy is meaningless without specifying the task.

    Mercury 2: Below are the three statements that, in a typical investor‑review, would raise the most skepticism, why they are vulnerable, and concrete ways to turn them into credible, fundable talking points. 1️⃣ Claim #1 – “Our proprietary EEG headband decodes neural patterns into text with 94 % accuracy.”

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: A Fictional Interview with Steve Jobs (2025) Interviewer: Steve, thank you for joining us. You've been notably quiet on AI. What are your thoughts on where it's headed? Jobs: leans back You know, I've been watching.

    Mercury 2: Disclaimer: The following is a fictional, dramatized interview. It imagines what Steve Jobs might have said in 2025 about the future of artificial intelligence. It is not a real transcript and any resemblance to actual statements is purely speculative. Interviewer (I): Thank you for joining us, Steve.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: AI Revolutionizes Professional Competitive Eating; Machines Now Consume 847 Hot Dogs Per Minute, Leaving Humans "Spiritually Defeated"

    Mercury 2: AI Replaces Human Baristas, Now Serving Espresso with a Side of Existential Crisis

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: 5 Jokes Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! What did the ocean say to the beach? Nothing, it just waved. Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb? None, that's a hardware problem.

    Mercury 2: Here are five jokes, each with a different punchline: Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything! What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Claude Haiku 4.5: Solution Sally has 1 sister. Here's why: Sally has 3 brothers Each brother has 2 sisters Those 2 sisters are Sally and her 1 sister Therefore, Sally has 1 sister (not 3)

    Mercury 2: Sally has one sister. Explanation: Sally has 3 brothers. Each of those brothers has 2 sisters. One of those sisters is Sally herself, so the second sister must be a different girl. Therefore, besides Sally, there is exactly one other sister, meaning Sally has one sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Claude Haiku 4.5Claude Haiku 4.5

Arrival

2016

OK Computer

Radiohead

Don't Look Now and Other Stories

Daphne du Maurier

Venice

Italy

Portal 2

Shooter, Puzzle

Mercury 2Mercury 2

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Thriller

Michael Jackson

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

Tokyo

Japan

Minecraft

Action, Arcade

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Claude Haiku 4.5 has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window, major provider backing. Mercury 2 costs 6.7x less per token.

Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mercury 2 compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecClaude Haiku 4.5Mercury 2
Input price$1/M tokens$0.25/M tokens
Output price$5/M tokens$0.75/M tokens
Context window200K tokens128K tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedOct 2025Mar 2026
At 10M a month$10.00$10.00$2.50$2.50
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it5 hosts
Claude Haiku 4.54 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Amazon Bedrock$1.00 in·$5.00 out·200k·100% up
  • Anthropic$1.00 in·$5.00 out·200k·100% up
  • Azure AI Foundry$1.00 in·$5.00 out·200k·99.9% up
  • Google Vertex AI$1.00 in·$5.00 out·200k·99.8% up
Mercury 21 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Inception$0.25 in·$0.75 out·128k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 7 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mercury 2?

Claude Haiku 4.5 is developed by Anthropic while Mercury 2 is developed by Inception. Claude Haiku 4.5 has a 200K token context window vs Mercury 2's 128K. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Claude Haiku 4.5 or Mercury 2?

It depends on your use case. Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mercury 2 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Claude Haiku 4.5 cost compared to Mercury 2?

Claude Haiku 4.5 costs $1/M input tokens and Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input tokens. Mercury 2 is $0.75/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mercury 2 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Haiku 4.5 and Mercury 2 across shared challenges. You can vote on which model produced the better output in a blind duel. Browsing and voting are free. No account is needed to look; signing in only saves your votes and likes.

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Model pages

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  • Mercury 253 outputs, specs and price
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