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  5. OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)vsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)vsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 has a larger context window than OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) (260K tokens vs 256K tokens).

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) and Mercury 2.5 compared across 18 shared prompts
SpecOpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)Mercury 2.5
Input price—$0.04/M tokens
Output price—$0.15/M tokens
Context window256K tokens260K tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJun 2026Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 18 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) –…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)944 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) — LBO Underwriting Memorandum To: Private Equity Investment Committee From: Underwriting Team Date: October 24, 2023 Subject: 5-Year LBO Analysis and Underwriting of HarborTech Services (HTS) Executive Summary & Capital Structure HarborTech Services (HTS) represents a highly defensive…
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Mercury 2.5403 words
1. Simplified Year-by-Year LBO Model (FY2026–FY2030) Entry Assumptions: Enterprise Value (EV): $120m × 12.0x = $1,440m Transaction Fees: $1,440m × 2.0% = $28.8m Total Debt at Close: $120m × 5.5x = $660m Term Loan: $120m × 4.0x = $480m Mezzanine: $120m × 1.5x = $180m Equity Required: $1,440m (EV) + $28.8m (Fees) − $660m…
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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…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)1,670 words
The Spark of Divergence: The Empirical Transistor (1920) In our timeline, the transistor was delayed until 1947 because the materials science of ultra-pure single-crystal semiconductors did not yet exist, and the quantum mechanical understanding of solids (such as Alan Wilson’s band theory) was not published until…
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Mercury 2.5660 words
Inventing the transistor in 1920 would have fundamentally reshaped the 20th century, compressing the digital age by roughly two decades. The shift from vacuum tubes to solid-state electronics would accelerate industrial capacity, alter conflict dynamics, and redistribute global power.
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Adversarial Contract Review

Here is a contract for a software consulting engagement: --- SOFTWARE CONSULTING AGREEMENT This Agreement is entered into between TechCorp…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)2,563 words
This Software Consulting Agreement is a highly aggressive, deeply one-sided document. In its current form, it shifts virtually all operational, financial, and legal risk onto the contractor while offering almost no reciprocal protections.
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Mercury 2.5501 words
Here is an analysis of the contract clauses that pose significant risk to the contractor, along with suggested modifications and legal reasoning. Scope and Compensation (Clause 1) Risk: The client can expand the project indefinitely without paying extra.
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Simple 7-Ingredient Recipe

Create a simple recipe for a delicious dish (sweet or savory) using only 7 common pantry ingredients. Include a creative name for the dish…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)663 words
Here is a simple, incredibly delicious dessert recipe that tastes like it came from a gourmet bakery, yet relies on only 7 basic pantry staples you likely already have at home.
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Mercury 2.5190 words
Pantry Pasta Primavera Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Servings: 2 Ingredients (7 Common Pantry Items) Pasta (spaghetti, penne, or fusilli) – 8 oz Canned crushed tomatoes – 1 can (14 oz) Olive oil – 3 tablespoons Garlic powder – 1 teaspoon Dried oregano – 1 teaspoon Parmesan cheese (grated) – ½ cup Salt and…
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Michelin Star Recipe Design

Design an innovative recipe for a multi-component dish worthy of a Michelin 3-star restaurant. The recipe should feature an unusual…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)2,510 words
Spectre de la Forêt (Phantom of the Forest) A Contemporary Franco-Japanese Study of Boreal Decay, Preservation, and the Liminal Space Between Seasons I. Conceptual Narrative This dish is a culinary meditation on *wabi-sabi*—the beauty of transience, imperfection, and natural cycles—viewed through a boreal lens.
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Mercury 2.5827 words
Dish Title: Chronos and Mycelium Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the intersection of time, decay, and rebirth. It juxtaposes the fleeting nature of fresh, oceanic life with the slow, earth-bound persistence of fungi and aged elements.
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Explain Like I'm a Specific Expert

Explain how a large language model (like GPT or Claude) learns and generates text to each of these three audiences: 1. **An experienced…

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)1,120 words
To the Experienced Software Engineer To understand how a Large Language Model (LLM) works, it helps to view it not as a database of facts, but as a highly compressed, lossy compilation of execution paths.
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Mercury 2.5572 words
For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of the model as a stateless microservice that has ingested the entire public internet as its training dataset. During the training phase, it performs a massive distributed optimization job, adjusting internal weights to minimize a loss function based on next-token prediction.
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Our Verdict
OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)
OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, nothing separates them.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)
Input
—
Output
—
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
Output
$0.15
Where to run it

1 host

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Mercury 2.51 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

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) is developed by OpenRouter while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) has a 256K token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 18 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) and Mercury 2.5 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 18 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) 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.

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Model pages

OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026) logo
OpenRouter Fusion · Budget (Jun 2026)49 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.520 outputs, specs and price
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