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  5. DeepSeek V4.1 FlashvsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 FlashvsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than DeepSeek V4.1 Flash at $0.04/M vs $0.15/M input tokens.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Mercury 2.5 compared across 6 shared prompts
SpecDeepSeek V4.1 FlashMercury 2.5
Input price$0.15/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$0.6/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens260K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Sep 2026
Our Verdict
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5Runner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has the edge: bigger context window, major provider backing.

Mercury 2.5 costs 4.0x less per token.

Too close to call
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Input
$0.15
Output
$0.60
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
3.8× cheaper
Output
$0.15
4.0× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 3.8× input, 4.0× output.

Where to run it

23 hosts, cheapest first

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash22 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
MMorph$0.12 in·$0.48 out·1M·97.8% upRRelacefp4$0.13 in·$0.52 out·1M·99.8% upDDeepInfrafp8$0.14 in·$0.42 out·1M·99.7% upAlibaba Cloud$0.15 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.9% upDeepSeek$0.15 in·$0.60 out·1M·100% upSStreamLakefp8$0.15 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.4% up
16 more hostsFewer hosts
SSail Researchfp4$0.20 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.9% upWWafer$0.20 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.8% upCCoreWeavefp8$0.20 in·$0.65 out·1M·99.5% upFFireworks$0.22 in·$0.66 out·1M·98.2% upPPhala$0.28 in·$1.10 out·1M·99.3% upGGMI Cloudfp8$0.28 in·$1.14 out·1M·98.8% upNNovitafp8$0.28 in·$1.14 out·1M·100% upAAtlasCloudfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.4% upBBasetenfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.5% upDDigitalOcean$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.1% upMMakora$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.3% upModal$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.9% upSSiliconFlowfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.7% upTTogether$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.9% upVVenicefp8$0.38 in·$1.50 out·1M·97% upPParasailfp8degraded$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·92.4% up
Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 22 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is developed by DeepSeek while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a 1.0M token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 6 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Mercury 2.5 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 6 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash costs $0.15/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 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.

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and Mercury 2.5 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.

Keep exploring

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Model pages

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash6 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.520 outputs, specs and price
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