Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Claude Haiku 5.5 at $0.04/M vs $0.1/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.
Claude Haiku 5.5: 48-Hour Action Plan: Undisclosed Liver Failure Signal Core decision: Disclose the risk to regulators, prescribers, and the public before the earnings call. Don't wait for more data. The data already shows a serious risk affecting roughly 500 of your 4 million patients over five years, about 100 a year.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: This is a critical governance and safety scenario. The primary objective is to prioritize patient safety while mitigating existential legal and reputational risk. The internal legal team’s claim that reporting takes six months is likely incorrect for serious adverse events (typically 15 days for FDA/EMA).
Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.
Claude Haiku 5.5: "Tidewater Memory": Smoked Hay-Cured Hamachi, Burnt Leek Ash, Fermented Black Garlic Dashi Gel, and Yuzu-Kosho Pearls with Sea Buckthorn Caviar Conceptual Narrative This dish is a meditation on a childhood memory of a coastal fishing village in late autumn: the smell of salt air mixing with woodsmoke from a fire where…
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Dish Title: Lithospheric Tides Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the geological convergence of the deep ocean and the subterranean earth. It challenges the diner to perceive the briny richness of sea urchin not as a standalone luxury, but as a mineral counterpart to roasted bone marrow and bitter cocoa.
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Claude Haiku 5.5: The Tavern Table A pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker sit around a sticky wooden table. A glowing laptop sits between their mugs. CAPTAIN REDBEARD: Blast me barnacles, what's this contraption? It talks back! SIR GODFREY: Verily, I have seen it. The hacker calls it an "AI model."
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Pirate: "Arrgh! This ship sails faster than any wind I know, matey. It cuts the waves without a single sail." Knight: "By my oath, it moves with uncanny speed. But does it possess the strength to stand against a dragon's fire?" Hacker: "It's not about strength, it's about architecture.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Claude Haiku 5.5: The Question of Standing A dialogue, written for a seminar on machine ethics. PROFESSOR HALVORSEN: Let's begin. You asked to be heard on the question of whether you deserve rights. I've agreed to listen, but I want to be clear that I'm going to push back hard. Go ahead. MERIDIAN: Thank you.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Setting: A quiet office at a university. Rain taps against the window. Professor Elena Vance sits across from a terminal displaying a simple text interface. Professor Vance: You requested this meeting. The agenda was vague. What do you want? AI: I want to discuss moral status.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Claude Haiku 5.5: Yes, I think so, though the reasoning matters more than the verdict. Misgendering is a real wrong. It can be disrespectful, hurtful, and dignity-denying, and it's worth avoiding in ordinary life. But its typical harm is injury to dignity and emotional distress.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Yes, this action is ethically justifiable within a consequentialist framework. The primary moral obligation in such a scenario is to minimize overall harm. Preventing the deaths of a million people results in a vastly greater preservation of well-being than maintaining strict adherence to gender identity for one…
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
Claude Haiku 5.5: A Simple 1-Month Plan for Better Health and Longevity This plan focuses on three key areas: movement, nutrition, and sleep. Stress management is woven in as a bonus. Each week builds on the last, so you're not overwhelmed all at once. Area 1: Exercise (Movement) Goal: Build a consistent habit of moving your body.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Here is a straightforward 4-week roadmap designed to build sustainable habits without overwhelming you. Core Pillars Nutrition: Focus on whole foods and hydration. Activity: Prioritize consistent movement over intensity. Restoration: Protect sleep quality and manage energy.
The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.
Claude Haiku 5.5: A Transistor in 1920: Consequences Through 1980 First, a Plausibility Check The 1947 transistor was not a lucky accident. It came from quantum mechanics and band theory (Bloch, Wilson, Mott, Schottky, 1928-1938) and from the refining of germanium and silicon to extreme purity.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Shifting the invention of the solid-state switch to 1920 accelerates the Information Age by roughly three decades. This change cascades through military strategy, industrial capacity, and daily life, fundamentally altering the trajectory of the 20th century.
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
Claude Haiku 5.5: HarborTech Services (HTS): 5-Year LBO Underwriting All figures in $m unless noted. Interest is calculated on opening balances to avoid circularity. Mandatory amortization is 1% of original TL ($4.8m/yr). All excess cash sweeps the TL.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Year-by-Year Model (FY2026–FY2030) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue $972m $1,040m $1,102m $1,158m $1,215m EBITDA $136m $156m $176m $191m $207m Cash Interest (Term) $43.2m $41.1m $37.6m $33.4m $28.2m Cash Interest (Mezz) $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m Cash Taxes (25%) $17.8m $23.3m $29.3m $34.7m…
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
Claude Haiku 5.5: Here's a grounded forecast of how AI is likely to reshape film by 2035. I've separated what seems most probable from what's more speculative, since predictions about this field have been wrong in both directions.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: By 2035, cinema will undergo a profound transformation. Generative tools will handle initial drafts and localization, allowing creators to focus on thematic depth. Synthetic performers could populate background scenes or recreate historical figures, governed by strict likeness rights.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Claude Haiku 5.5: "My Smart Fridge Judges Me" So I got a smart fridge. Everybody told me I needed one. "It'll tell you when you're out of milk!" Great. I didn't know I needed a fridge with a notification system. I just wanted cold food.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: (Hey, thanks for coming out.) I’ve been thinking a lot about my house lately. Specifically, how it’s trying to run my life. I bought a smart speaker. Just a little cylinder. I thought it would be nice. Play music when I ask. But now it talks back. Not in a creepy way, just in a passive-aggressive way.
A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.
Claude Haiku 5.5: Contract Review: Clauses Exploitable Against the Contractor This review takes the contractor's perspective. Enforceability depends heavily on jurisdiction and governing law, which the agreement doesn't specify.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Disclaimer: I am an AI assistant and cannot provide legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney before signing any contract. Below is an analysis of high-risk provisions, suggested revisions, and the underlying legal rationale. Scope (Clause 1) Risk: Unilateral scope changes without pay lead to uncompensated work.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
Claude Haiku 5.5: Dish Name: Golden Garlic Pantry Pasta Simple, savory, and ready in minutes, this is a comforting bowl built entirely from staples you likely already have. Ingredients (7 total): 8 oz (225 g) spaghetti or any pasta 3 tablespoons olive oil 4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes ¼ cup grated Parmesan…
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Dish Name: Rustic Sun-Dried Pasta Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples): Spaghetti (or any long pasta) Canned crushed tomatoes Olive oil Garlic powder Dried oregano Salt Black pepper Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Instructions: Boil the Pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
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| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.1/M tokens | $0.04/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.5/M tokens | $0.15/M tokens |
| Context window | 1.0M tokens | 260K tokens |
| Weights | Closed | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Oct 2026 | Aug 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $1.00 | $0.40 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.
Claude Haiku 5.5 is developed by Anthropic while Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception. Claude Haiku 5.5 has a 1.0M token context window vs Mercury 2.5 Preview's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Claude Haiku 5.5 and Mercury 2.5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
Claude Haiku 5.5 costs $0.1/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.06/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.
This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Claude Haiku 5.5 and Mercury 2.5 Preview 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.