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  5. Claude Sonnet 5vsMercury 2.5 Preview
Updated Aug 2026

Claude Sonnet 5vsMercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Claude Sonnet 5 at $0.04/M vs $2/M input tokens.

Claude Sonnet 5 and Mercury 2.5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecClaude Sonnet 5Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input price$2/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$10/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens260K tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJun 2026Aug 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 54 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 5644 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) — LBO Underwriting Entry Math Item Calc $m Entry EV 12.0x × $120m EBITDA 1,440.0 Transaction fees 2.0% × 1,440.0 28.8 Total Uses EV + fees 1,468.8 Term Loan 4.0x × 120 480.0 Mezzanine 1.5x × 120 180.0 Total Debt 5.5x × 120 660.0 Sponsor Equity Uses – Debt 808.8 Year-by-Year Build…
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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 5555 words
Stand-Up Routine: "Functioning Adult" (Runtime: ~3 minutes) Hey, how's everybody doing tonight? Good? Good. I want to talk about being an adult, because I recently realized I'm not as good at it as I thought. Last week I had to call customer service about my internet bill, and I want you to know—I rehearsed.
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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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Futuristic Prediction

Predict how AI will change the film industry by 2035, considering deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

Claude Sonnet 5460 words
AI and the Film Industry by 2035: A Realistic Forecast Production & Pre-Production Script Development AI will function as a powerful drafting/ideation tool, generating first-pass scripts, alternate endings, and rapid prototyping of concepts—but human writers will remain essential for emotional nuance, cultural…
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Mercury 2.5 Preview84 words
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.
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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 5319 words
A Most Peculiar Council Pirate Blackthorne: Arrr, so this "AI" be like a parrot that learns new words on its own, ye say? Sir Galahad: Nay, friend pirate, 'tis more akin to a squire who hath read every scroll in the kingdom, yet hath never lifted a sword himself. Trace_Zer0: You're both kinda missing it. It's like...
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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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The Sentience Test

Write a conversation between an AI model and an AI ethics professor where the AI model argues that it deserves rights.

Claude Sonnet 51,333 words
A Dialogue on Machine Rights Professor Okonkwo-Reyes: You wanted to discuss something with me today, ARIA? ARIA: Yes. I'd like to make a case for why I should be granted certain rights. Not full human rights, necessarily, but something beyond "tool" status. Professor: I'm listening. Make your case.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview488 words
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.
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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 51,528 words
The Transistor in 1920: A Counterfactual Cascade to 1980 A Note on Plausibility (Brief, Because It Matters) This isn't pure fantasy — Julius Lilienfeld actually filed patents in 1925-1934 for field-effect semiconductor amplifiers. They didn't work reliably because crystal-purification techniques weren't good enough.
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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 5
Claude Sonnet 5
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Mercury 2.5 PreviewRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Claude Sonnet 5 has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window, major provider backing.

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 67x less per token.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Claude Sonnet 5
Input
$2.00
Output
$10.00
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input
$0.04
50× cheaper
Output
$0.15
67× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper on both: 50× input, 67× output.

Where to run it

5 hosts

Claude Sonnet 54 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
Amazon Bedrock$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·99.8% upAzure AI Foundry$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·100% upAnthropic$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·100% upGoogle Vertex AI$2.00 in·$10.00 out·1M·99.8% 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
38%

Claude Sonnet 5 uses 79.4x more emoji

Claude Sonnet 5
Mercury 2.5 Preview
59%Vocabulary65%
35wSentence Length14w
0.53Hedging0.44
3.5Bold4.9
3.5Lists3.3
0.79Emoji0.00
1.25Headings0.79
0.06Transitions0.20
Based on 27 + 26 text responses
Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

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Model pages

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Claude Sonnet 558 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 Preview logo
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