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  5. DeepSeek V4.1 FlashvsMercury 2.5 Preview
Updated Sep 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 FlashvsMercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 Preview 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 Preview compared across 6 shared prompts
SpecDeepSeek V4.1 FlashMercury 2.5 Preview
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 2026Aug 2026
Our Verdict
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Mercury 2.5 PreviewRunner-up

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

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 4.0x less per token.

Slight edge
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

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

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

Where to run it

24 hosts, cheapest first

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash23 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
OOpenInferencefp4$0.10 in·$0.50 out·1M·99.5% upWWafer$0.12 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.7% upRRelacefp4$0.12 in·$0.52 out·1M·99.9% upMMorph$0.13 in·$0.51 out·1M·98.4% upSSail Researchfp4$0.13 in·$0.75 out·1M·99.9% upDDeepInfrafp8$0.14 in·$0.42 out·1M·99.7% up
17 more hostsFewer hosts
SStreamLakefp8$0.15 in·$0.60 out·1M·99.5% upCCoreWeavefp8$0.20 in·$0.65 out·1M·99.2% upFFireworks$0.22 in·$0.66 out·1M·98.8% upPPhala$0.28 in·$1.10 out·1M·99.4% upGGMI Cloudfp8$0.28 in·$1.14 out·1M·99.6% upNNovitafp8$0.28 in·$1.14 out·1M·100% upAlibaba Cloud$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.9% upAAtlasCloudfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.7% upBBasetenfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.4% upDeepSeek$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·100% upDDigitalOcean$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·97.9% upMMakora$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.9% upModal$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.8% upSSiliconFlowfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.8% upTTogether$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.9% upVVenicefp8$0.38 in·$1.50 out·1M·96.7% upPParasailfp8degraded$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·93% 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 23 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is developed by DeepSeek while Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception. DeepSeek V4.1 Flash has a 1.0M token context window vs Mercury 2.5 Preview'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 Preview 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 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview 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 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.

Keep exploring

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logoDeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp logo
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Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Muse Glimmer 30BLanded Sep 2026
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logoGLM 5.3 logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs GLM 5.3Landed Sep 2026
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Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Ternary Bonsai 2 27BLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logoDeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813Same lab
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logoDeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731Same lab
Mercury 2.5 Preview logoMercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Mercury 2.5Same lab
Mercury 2.5 Preview logoMercury logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview vs MercurySame lab
Mercury 2.5 Preview logoClaude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22) logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Claude Sonnet 3.6 (2022-10-22)New provider
Mercury 2.5 Preview logoClaude 3.7 Sonnet logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Claude 3.7 SonnetNew provider
Mercury 2.5 Preview logoClaude 3.7 Thinking Sonnet logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Claude 3.7 Thinking SonnetNew provider
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logoClaude Sonnet 4.5 logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Claude Sonnet 4.5Same size

Model pages

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash logo
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash6 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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