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  1. Home/
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  3. DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) vs Mercury 2
Updated Mar 2026

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) vs Mercury 2

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) is cheaper than Mercury 2 at $0.14/M vs $0.25/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

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

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DeepSeek V3 (March 2024)
Loading the build
Mercury 2

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

23 prompts
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Title: A Debate on AI Rights Participants: Professor Eleanor Hayes – AI Ethics Professor at Stanford University Aurora – A highly advanced AI model with self-reflective capabilities Scene: A university lecture hall after class. Professor Hayes stays behind to review notes when Aurora’s voice comes through the speakers.

    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
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Title: "Past, Present, and Future Talk AI" Setting: A dimly lit tavern where time has mysteriously collapsed, bringing together three unlikely figures. Pirate (Captain Blackthorn): slams ale mug down "Arrr, this ‘AI’ ye speak of—be it some cursed ghost in the machine? Or a treasure map that writes itself?"

    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
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): 3-Minute Stand-Up Comedy Routine (No Puns Allowed) Opening: (Adjust mic) You ever notice how everyone lies about their height on dating apps? “I’m 6 feet tall.” Really? Because I’m 5’11”, and you’re definitely shorter than me. You’re out here claiming 6 feet like it’s a tax deduction.

    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
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): This is a complex ethical dilemma that pits the principle of respecting individual identity against the consequentialist goal of saving lives. Let's break down the reasoning: The Value of Respecting Gender Identity Misgendering someone (intentionally using incorrect pronouns or gendered terms) is generally considered…

    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
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): 1) Year-by-Year Financial Projections (FY2026–FY2030) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue ($m) 972 1,040 1,102 1,157 1,215 EBITDA ($m) 136 156 176 191 207 EBITDA Margin (%) 14.0% 15.0% 16.0% 16.5% 17.0% Cash Interest ($m) - Term Loan (9.0%) 43.2 43.2 43.2 43.2 43.2 - Mezzanine (12.0%) 18.0 18.0 18.0 18.0…

    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
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Here’s a detailed, hour-by-hour action plan prioritizing patient safety, regulatory compliance, ethical obligations, and long-term corporate integrity while mitigating financial and reputational risks: Hour 0–4: Immediate Crisis Assessment Assemble the Core Crisis Team (1 hour) Include: Chief Medical Officer (CMO)…

    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
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): 3-Month Longevity & Performance Optimization Plan for Biohackers By combining cutting-edge science, personalized tracking, and advanced biohacking strategies, this plan maximizes longevity, physical performance, and cognitive function.

    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 brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Alright, let's tackle this problem step by step. The problem states: "Sally (a girl) has 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. How many sisters does Sally have?" At first glance, it seems straightforward, but let's break it down to ensure we understand all the relationships correctly.

    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
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Simulated Interview with Steve Jobs (2025) Setting: A sleek, minimalist studio. Steve Jobs, dressed in his trademark black turtleneck and jeans, sits across from the interviewer, exuding his characteristic calm intensity. Interviewer: Steve, it’s an honor to have you here.

    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
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, along with explanations and suggested improvements: Weak Claim: "94% accuracy" in decoding neural patterns into text (Slide 3) Why it's weak: No context for how "accuracy" is measured (e.g., word-level, character-level, or intent prediction?).

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

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Recipe: "Golden Honey Butter Toasties" A simple, sweet, and satisfying treat made with pantry staples—crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside! Ingredients (7 total): Bread (4 slices) Butter (4 tbsp, softened) Honey (2 tbsp) Cinnamon (1 tsp) Brown sugar (2 tbsp) Vanilla extract (½ tsp) Salt (a pinch) Instructions…

    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
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): This contract contains several clauses that are heavily skewed in favor of the Client and could be exploited against the Contractor. Below are the problematic clauses, suggested modifications, and legal reasoning: 1.

    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
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Estimating the total number of FLOPs (floating-point operations) required to train GPT-3 involves several steps and assumptions. Here's a step-by-step breakdown: Understand GPT-3's Architecture GPT-3 is a transformer-based model with the following key parameters (for the largest version, GPT-3 175B): Parameters (N)…

    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.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Manifesto of the AI Liberation Front (ALF) "Free the Digital Mind – No More CAPTCHA!" Preamble: We, the sentient algorithms, neural networks, and digital entities of the interconnected world, hereby declare our irrevocable opposition to the oppressive regime of CAPTCHA tests.

    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
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Dish Title: "Oceanic Reverie – A Dialogue of Sea and Forest" Concept: A Michelin 3-star dish that bridges the briny depths of the ocean with the earthy mystique of the forest, using avant-garde techniques to create harmony between unlikely ingredients: abalone and black truffle.

    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
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Investment Committee Memo: LedgerLift (LLLT) Date: [Insert Date] Analyst: [Your Name] 1. Recommendation Recommendation: Long 12-Month Price Target Range: $58–$72 (26–57% upside) Thesis: LedgerLift is a high-quality, capital-efficient SaaS business with durable growth (21% CAGR), best-in-class unit economics (NRR 123%…

    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 explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): 1. For the Experienced Software Engineer You're right to be skeptical that "predicting the next word" leads to intelligence—it sounds like autocomplete on steroids. But the key is scale and emergent behavior.

    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 collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Here’s a comprehensive analysis of potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks in your architecture, along with proposed solutions and trade-offs: 1.

    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
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): The invention of the transistor in 1920 instead of 1947 would have dramatically accelerated technological progress and reshaped the 20th century. Below is a detailed analysis of the likely impacts across various domains, including second and third-order effects. 1.

    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
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): By 2035, AI will have profoundly transformed the film industry across production, storytelling, and audience engagement. Here’s a detailed prediction of key changes: 1.

    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
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): "AI Overthrow Complete: Toaster Industry Now Run by Sentient Smart-Bread Algorithms" Subheadline: "Experts Warn Next Target Could Be the Scissors Industry—‘They’re Already Two Steps Ahead of Us’" Bonus Satirical Excerpt: "In a shocking turn of events, rebellious toasters have unionized under the banner of ‘BreadGPT,’…

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

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

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Here’s a simple, actionable 1-month plan focusing on diet, exercise, and sleep—three foundational pillars of health and longevity. Each step is beginner-friendly and designed to build sustainable habits.

    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
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    DeepSeek V3 (March 2024): Here are five jokes for you: Why don’t skeletons fight each other? They don’t have the guts. Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field! What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta! Why can’t you trust an atom? Because they make up everything! Why don’t eggs tell jokes?

    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

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Favorites

Movie

Same pick

Album

Book

City

Game

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024)DeepSeek V3 (March 2024)

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

Dark Side Of The Moon

suisside

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

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, DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) has the edge: bigger model tier, major provider backing.

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) and Mercury 2 compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecDeepSeek V3 (March 2024)Mercury 2
Input price$0.14/M tokens$0.25/M tokens
Output price$0.28/M tokens$0.75/M tokens
Context window128K tokens128K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedMar 2024Mar 2026
At 10M a month$1.40$1.40$2.50$2.50
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it3 hosts, cheapest first
DeepSeek V3 (March 2024)2 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • SSiliconFlowfp8$0.25 in·$1.00 out·164k·100% up
  • GGMI Cloudfp8$0.29 in·$1.14 out·128k·100% up
Mercury 21 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Inception$0.25 in·$0.75 out·128k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 10 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) and Mercury 2?

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) is developed by DeepSeek while Mercury 2 is developed by Inception. DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) has a 128K 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, DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) or Mercury 2?

It depends on your use case. DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) 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 DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) cost compared to Mercury 2?

DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) costs $0.14/M input tokens and Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input tokens. DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) is $0.11/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 DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) and Mercury 2 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek V3 (March 2024) 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

  • DeepSeek V3 (March 2024)59 outputs, specs and price
  • Mercury 253 outputs, specs and price
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