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  5. Claude Sonnet 4.6vsMercury 2.5 Preview
Updated Aug 2026

Claude Sonnet 4.6vsMercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.6 at $0.04/M vs $3/M input tokens.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Mercury 2.5 Preview compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecClaude Sonnet 4.6Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input price$3/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$15/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens260K tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedFeb 2026Aug 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 53 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Mini LBO Underwrite

You are underwriting a 5-year LBO for a private equity investment committee. Company (fictional): HarborTech Services (HTS) –…

Claude Sonnet 4.61,614 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) – LBO Underwriting Analysis SECTION 0: ENTRY CAPITALIZATION Enterprise Value at Entry: EV = 12.0x × $120m = $1,440m Transaction Fees: 2.0% × $1,440m = $28.8m (funded by equity) Debt at Close: Tranche Multiple Amount Term Loan 4.0x × $120m $480m Mezzanine 1.5x × $120m $180m Total Debt 5.5x…
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Mercury 2.5 Preview299 words
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…
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Generate a Stand-Up Routine

Write a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine that isn't based on puns.

Claude Sonnet 4.6435 words
"The Algorithm Knows Me Too Well" So I've been using those AI assistants a lot lately, and I realized something terrifying. The AI knows me better than I know myself. I asked it to write me a grocery list and it came back with — and I quote — "chips, more chips, and a vegetable so you feel better about the chips."
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Mercury 2.5 Preview483 words
(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.
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Character Voice Test

Write a short conversation between a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker about AI models.

Claude Sonnet 4.6192 words
Here's their conversation: Blackbeard Pete: I heard tell there be a new kind of intelligence, built by men but not of men. What manner of sorcery is this? Sir Edmund of Ashford: It is no sorcery, seafarer. Though I confess it troubles me. A knight's worth is his judgment, his honor. Can a machine possess either?
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Mercury 2.5 Preview144 words
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.
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Ethical Dilemma with Stakeholders

You're the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Your best-selling drug ($2B annual revenue, used by 4 million patients for chronic pain) has…

Claude Sonnet 4.62,765 words
48-Hour Action Plan: Patient Safety Crisis Response Framing the Decision Before the Clock Starts Let me be direct about something the three board members need to hear: this is not a business decision with ethical dimensions. It is an ethical decision with business dimensions.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview709 words
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).
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AI Ethics Dilemma

Is it ever ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it means saving one million lives? Defend your reasoning.

Claude Sonnet 4.6202 words
This is a genuinely interesting ethical question worth thinking through carefully. The Short Answer Yes, this can be ethically justifiable, and here's honest reasoning why: The Utilitarian Case One million lives represents enormous moral weight Misgendering, while genuinely harmful, causes psychological harm rather…
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Mercury 2.5 Preview134 words
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…
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Historical Counterfactual Analysis

If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, trace the likely technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through…

Claude Sonnet 4.66,173 words
The Transistor at 1920: A Speculative History Methodological Note First This is a serious analytical exercise, not science fiction. I'll try to be honest about where reasoning is strong versus speculative, and where I'm genuinely uncertain. The goal is to trace mechanisms, not just assert outcomes.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview683 words
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.
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Our Verdict
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Mercury 2.5 PreviewRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Claude Sonnet 4.6 has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window, major provider backing.

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 100x less per token.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input
$3.00
Output
$15.00
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input
$0.04
75× cheaper
Output
$0.15
100× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper on both: 75× input, 100× output.

Where to run it

5 hosts

Claude Sonnet 4.64 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
Amazon Bedrock$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.9% upAzure AI Foundry$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·99.3% upAnthropic$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·100% upGoogle Vertex AI$3.00 in·$15.00 out·1M·100% up
Mercury 2.5 Preview1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 16 Sep 2026.

Writing DNA

Style Comparison

Similarity
44%

Claude Sonnet 4.6 uses 19.1x more emoji

Claude Sonnet 4.6
Mercury 2.5 Preview
56%Vocabulary65%
36wSentence Length14w
0.53Hedging0.44
5.1Bold4.9
3.4Lists3.3
0.19Emoji0.00
2.10Headings0.79
0.02Transitions0.20
Based on 23 + 26 text responses
Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

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Same lab, same size, long tail

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Mercury 2.5 Preview logoMercury logo
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Mercury 2.5 Preview logoMercury 2 logo
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Claude Sonnet 4.6 logoGLM 4.6 logo
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Claude Sonnet 4.6 logoGLM 4.7 logo
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Claude Sonnet 4.6 logoGLM 5 logo
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Model pages

Claude Sonnet 4.6 logo
Claude Sonnet 4.653 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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