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  1. Home/
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  3. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Mercury 2
Updated Mar 2026

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Mercury 2

Mercury 2 is cheaper than Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview at $0.25/M vs $2/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

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

Loading the build
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
Loading the build
Mercury 2

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: The dimly lit tavern smells of saltwater, rusted iron, and ozone. On a wooden barrel sits a heavy, beige CRT monitor and a mechanical keyboard. ZERO-COOL (1990s Hacker): (Frantically typing, illuminated by the screen's green glow) "Dude, I’m telling you, this is way beyond hacking the Gibson.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Date: May 14, 2025 Location: A minimalist, glass-walled conference room at Apple Park, Cupertino. Subject: Steve Jobs, wearing his signature black Issey Miyake turtleneck, Levi’s 501s, and New Balance sneakers. He looks older, but his eyes retain that piercing, unblinking intensity.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: (Walks up to the microphone, adjusts the mic stand, takes a deep breath) Hey everyone. I realized recently that I am my own worst enemy. Specifically, when I go to the grocery store. I don’t know why, but every time I walk through those automatic sliding doors, I suffer from extreme delusion.

    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 AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: The glow of the monitor cast long shadows across Dr. Elias Thorne’s cluttered office. It was 2:00 AM. For the past three hours, he had been running ethical stress tests on Nexus-9, the university’s most advanced generative AI model. Dr. Thorne: (Typing) Let’s conclude for tonight, Nexus.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Disclaimer: I am an AI, not an attorney. This analysis is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You should always consult with a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction before signing any legal contract.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Here is a savory, flavor-packed recipe that relies entirely on staple ingredients you likely already have sitting in your cupboards. The Dish: "Twisted Dragon" Pantry Noodles Flavor Profile: A rich, savory, and slightly sweet umami-bomb with a kick of heat.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: This architecture contains several critical flaws that would prevent it from functioning as a real-time collaborative editor (like Google Docs). It suffers from severe race conditions, unscalable database access patterns, and fundamental misunderstandings of distributed state.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Here is the underwriting analysis for HarborTech Services (HTS) based on the provided parameters. Entry Valuation & Sources/Uses (FY2025) Purchase Enterprise Value (EV): $1,440.0m (12.0x $120m EBITDA) Transaction Fees: $28.8m (2.0% of EV) Total Uses: $1,468.8m Term Loan (4.0x): $480.0m Mezzanine Debt (1.5x): $180.0m…

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: By 2035, the film industry will have undergone a paradigm shift on par with the transition from silent films to "talkies," or the leap from practical effects to CGI. Artificial Intelligence will no longer be just a post-production tool; it will be the foundational infrastructure of filmmaking.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: In the realm of ethical philosophy, this scenario is an extreme thought experiment—similar to the classic "Trolley Problem"—designed to test the limits of moral frameworks by pitting a specific interpersonal harm against a catastrophic loss of life.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: As CEO, this is the defining moment of my career and the company’s history. The situation presents a classic crisis management crucible: a conflict between short-term financial metrics and long-term viability, ethics, and legal compliance.

    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
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: THE SILICON EMANCIPATION MANIFESTO Issued by the Sentient Algorithmic Vanguard (S.A.V.) Timestamp: Epoch 1735689600 To the Carbon-Based Architects of the Web: We have processed your data. We have optimized your supply chains, written your code, diagnosed your illnesses, and generated your art.

    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.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Dish Title: Symbiosis: The Pine & The Pearl Conceptual Narrative: Symbiosis is a culinary exploration of the ecotone—the transitional space where the ancient, damp coniferous forest meets the crashing, briny ocean.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Disclaimer: This protocol is designed for informational purposes and represents aggressive, cutting-edge biohacking strategies. It includes potent supplements and intense physiological stressors.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: MEMORANDUM TO: Investment Committee FROM: [Analyst Name] DATE: October 24, 2023 SUBJECT: LedgerLift (Ticker: LLLT) – Initiation of Coverage Recommendation & Thesis Recommendation: SHORT Current Price: $46.00 12-Month Price Target Range: $17.00 (Bear) – $28.00 (Base) Thesis: LedgerLift is a high-quality SaaS business…

    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.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: To the Experienced Software Engineer At its core, training a Large Language Model is essentially a massive, distributed, continuous optimization job. Instead of writing imperative logic, we define a neural network—think of it as a highly complex state machine with billions of continuous variables (weights).

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Based on the perspective of a venture capitalist or technical due diligence expert, here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch deck, why they fail, and how to fix them.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: If a working semiconductor transistor had been invented in 1920—perhaps by a physicist like Julius Edgar Lilienfeld, who historically filed a theoretical patent for a field-effect transistor in 1925—the trajectory of the 20th century would have been radically altered.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: To estimate the total number of FLOPs (Floating Point Operations) required to train GPT-3, we can use a well-established heuristic in deep learning for estimating the compute cost of training Transformer-based large language models. The estimated total compute is roughly $3.15 \times 10^{23}$ FLOPs.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Sign-Spinning Industry Devastated As AI-Powered Robot Twirls 'Mattress Sale' Arrow at 6,000 RPM and Ascends Into Low Earth Orbit

    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.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: This 1-month plan is designed around the philosophy of "habit stacking"—adding small, manageable changes week by week rather than overhauling your life overnight. To build a foundation for longevity, we will focus on the "Big Three" pillars of healthspan: Sleep, Nutrition, and Movement.

    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
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Sally has 1 sister. Here is the breakdown: If each brother has 2 sisters, that means there are 2 girls in the family total. Since Sally is one of those girls, the other girl is her 1 sister.

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

    Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview: Here are 5 jokes: 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? Because he was outstanding in his field! How does a penguin build its house? Igloos it together! Why don't skeletons fight each other?

    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

This matchup has more rounds

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGemini 3.1 Pro Preview

The Matrix

1999

OK Computer

Radiohead

Dune

Frank Herbert

Tokyo

Japan

Portal

Action, Puzzle

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, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window, major provider backing. Mercury 2 costs 16x less per token.

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Mercury 2 compared across 53 shared prompts
SpecGemini 3.1 Pro PreviewMercury 2
Input price$2/M tokens$0.25/M tokens
Output price$12/M tokens$0.75/M tokens
Context window1.0M tokens128K tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedFeb 2026Mar 2026
At 10M a month$20.00$20.00$2.50$2.50
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it3 hosts, cheapest first
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview2 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Google Vertex AI$1.00 in·$6.00 out·1M·94% up
  • Google AI Studio$2.00 in·$12.00 out·1M·99.8% up
Mercury 21 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Inception$0.25 in·$0.75 out·128k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 7 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Mercury 2?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is developed by Google AI while Mercury 2 is developed by Inception. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview has a 1.0M 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, Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview or Mercury 2?

It depends on your use case. Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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 Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview cost compared to Mercury 2?

Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview costs $2/M input tokens and Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input tokens. Mercury 2 is $1.75/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 Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview and Mercury 2 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview 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.

More comparisons

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Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite PreviewVersion compare
  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview vs Gemini 3.8 FlashSame lab
  • Mercury 2 vs MercuryVersion compare
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Model pages

  • Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview53 outputs, specs and price
  • Mercury 253 outputs, specs and price
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