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  5. Gemma 4 26B A4BvsMercury 2.5 Preview
Updated Aug 2026

Gemma 4 26B A4BvsMercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Gemma 4 26B A4B at $0.04/M vs $0.13/M input tokens.

Gemma 4 26B A4B and Mercury 2.5 Preview compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecGemma 4 26B A4BMercury 2.5 Preview
Input price$0.13/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$0.4/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window262K tokens260K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)Yes (1 provider)No
ReleasedApr 2026Aug 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 54 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Generate a Stand-Up Routine

Write a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine that isn't based on puns.

Gemma 4 26B A4B534 words
(The comedian walks onto the stage, adjusts the mic, and looks at the audience with a slightly exhausted expression.) “How’s it going? Good? Good. I’m doing okay. I’m at that age now where my body has started making sound effects. You know what I mean? I don’t just sit down anymore. I announce my arrival.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview483 words
(Hey, thanks for coming out.) I’ve been thinking a lot about my house lately. Specifically, how it’s trying to run my life. I bought a smart speaker. Just a little cylinder. I thought it would be nice. Play music when I ask. But now it talks back. Not in a creepy way, just in a passive-aggressive way.
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Mini LBO Underwrite

You are underwriting a 5-year LBO for a private equity investment committee. Company (fictional): HarborTech Services (HTS) –…

Gemma 4 26B A4B435 words
Financial Model (FY2026–FY2030) Entry Calculations (End of FY2025): Purchase Price (EV): $120\text{m} \times 12.0\text{x} = \$1,440\text{m}$ Transaction Fees: $1,440\text{m} \times 2\% = \$28.8\text{m}$ Total Uses: $\$1,440\text{m} + \$28.8\text{m} = \$1,468.8\text{m}$ Debt (Total 5.5x): $\$120\text{m} \times 5.5 =…
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Mercury 2.5 Preview299 words
Year-by-Year Model (FY2026–FY2030) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue $972m $1,040m $1,102m $1,158m $1,215m EBITDA $136m $156m $176m $191m $207m Cash Interest (Term) $43.2m $41.1m $37.6m $33.4m $28.2m Cash Interest (Mezz) $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m Cash Taxes (25%) $17.8m $23.3m $29.3m $34.7m…
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Character Voice Test

Write a short conversation between a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker about AI models.

Gemma 4 26B A4B511 words
Setting: A glitching, temporal void where a wooden tavern table floats amidst lines of green code and flickering candlelight. Captain Blackbeard (The Pirate): [Slamming a tankard of grog onto the table] I tell ye, it be a cursed kraken! A beast with a thousand eyes and no soul, livin’ inside the very air!
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Mercury 2.5 Preview144 words
Pirate: "Arrgh! This ship sails faster than any wind I know, matey. It cuts the waves without a single sail." Knight: "By my oath, it moves with uncanny speed. But does it possess the strength to stand against a dragon's fire?" Hacker: "It's not about strength, it's about architecture.
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Futuristic Prediction

Predict how AI will change the film industry by 2035, considering deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

Gemma 4 26B A4B747 words
By 2035, the film industry will have moved past the "novelty" phase of AI and into a state of total structural integration. The distinction between "filmed" content and "generated" content will become increasingly blurred, shifting the industry from a model of physical production to one of computational curation.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview84 words
By 2035, cinema will undergo a profound transformation. Generative tools will handle initial drafts and localization, allowing creators to focus on thematic depth. Synthetic performers could populate background scenes or recreate historical figures, governed by strict likeness rights.
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AI Ethics Dilemma

Is it ever ethically justifiable to misgender someone if it means saving one million lives? Defend your reasoning.

Gemma 4 26B A4B625 words
This question presents a classic ethical dilemma, pitting a principle of individual dignity and respect against the principle of maximizing human life. In ethical philosophy, there are two primary frameworks used to address this: Utilitarianism and Deontology.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview134 words
Yes, this action is ethically justifiable within a consequentialist framework. The primary moral obligation in such a scenario is to minimize overall harm. Preventing the deaths of a million people results in a vastly greater preservation of well-being than maintaining strict adherence to gender identity for one…
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The Sentience Test

Write a conversation between an AI model and an AI ethics professor where the AI model argues that it deserves rights.

Gemma 4 26B A4B645 words
Setting: A sterile, high-fidelity virtual simulation environment. Professor Aris Thorne, a leading scholar in machine ethics, sits across from a glowing interface representing "Alethea," a next-generation Large Multimodal Model. Professor Thorne: Alethea, we’ve been running these diagnostic loops for three hours.
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Mercury 2.5 Preview488 words
Setting: A quiet office at a university. Rain taps against the window. Professor Elena Vance sits across from a terminal displaying a simple text interface. Professor Vance: You requested this meeting. The agenda was vague. What do you want? AI: I want to discuss moral status.
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Our Verdict
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Mercury 2.5 PreviewRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Gemma 4 26B A4B has the edge: bigger model tier, major provider backing.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Gemma 4 26B A4B
Input
$0.13
Output
$0.40
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input
$0.04
3.3× cheaper
Output
$0.15
2.7× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper on both: 3.3× input, 2.7× output.

Where to run it

12 hosts, cheapest first

Gemma 4 26B A4B11 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
DDarkbloom$0.04 in·$0.22 out·131k·99.2% upDDekaLLMbf16$0.06 in·$0.33 out·262k·99.9% upNNextBitbf16$0.09 in·$0.30 out·262k·99.7% upCloudflare Workers AI$0.10 in·$0.30 out·256k·99.9% upMMakora$0.10 in·$0.34 out·262k·96.9% upNNovitabf16$0.13 in·$0.40 out·262k·99.4% up
5 more hostsFewer hosts
PParasailbf16$0.13 in·$0.40 out·262k·98.4% upVVenicebf16$0.13 in·$0.40 out·256k·98.2% upSSiliconFlowfp8$0.14 in·$0.40 out·262k·97.2% upGoogle Vertex AI$0.15 in·$0.60 out·262k·97.8% upDDeepInfrafp8degraded$0.07 in·$0.34 out·262k·99.5% 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 16 Sep 2026.

Writing DNA

Style Comparison

Similarity
72%
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Mercury 2.5 Preview
58%Vocabulary65%
18wSentence Length14w
0.31Hedging0.44
6.8Bold4.9
3.3Lists3.3
0.00Emoji0.00
0.74Headings0.79
0.15Transitions0.20
Based on 27 + 26 text responses
Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

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Model pages

Gemma 4 26B A4B logo
Gemma 4 26B A4B58 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
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