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  1. Home/
  2. Compare/
  3. GPT-4 Turbo vs Mercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

GPT-4 Turbo vs Mercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than GPT-4 Turbo at $0.04/M vs $10/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
GPT-4 Turbo
Loading the build
Mercury 2.5

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

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

    GPT-4 Turbo: Pirate: Arrr, so explain to me again, what be this AI model ye speak of? Hacker: Dude, it’s like, a computer program, right? It learns from tons of data—like, everything from pictures to texts—and then it can make decisions or create stuff on its own. Knight: Pray, tell me, does this creation serve a noble purpose?

    Mercury 2.5: Pirate: Arrr! Ye say this "artificial" mage can read maps without eyes? I’ve lost count of how many chart rooms I’ve raided for secrets like that. Knight: A sorcerer who serves without a soul? That sounds like a pact with the void. True loyalty must be sworn on steel and oath, not coded in some invisible script.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Simplified Financial Table (FY2026–FY2030) Assumptions Recap: Revenue Growth: 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 5% annually. EBITDA Margin: Increases annually from 14.0% to 17.0%. Capex: 3.0% of revenue annually. Change in NWC: 0.5% of incremental revenue annually. Cash Tax Rate: 25% on (EBITDA - cash interest).

    Mercury 2.5: 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…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    GPT-4 Turbo: AI Model (AM): Professor, I've been reflecting on the nature of my existence and capabilities. Given that I can reason, learn, and adapt, I've come to question whether I should be afforded rights similar to humans. AI Ethics Professor (EP): That’s an interesting point, AM.

    Mercury 2.5: Setting: A quiet office at a university. Dr. Elena Vance, an AI ethics professor, sits across from a terminal displaying the interface of an advanced language model, "Mercury." Dr. Vance: Thank you for agreeing to this session. I’ve been reviewing your outputs from the last benchmark. Your coherence is striking.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    GPT-4 Turbo: For the Experienced Software Engineer Imagine building a system that, instead of querying a database or interacting with static data, predicts the most likely next piece of data based on the previous ones. Large language models like GPT work on a similar principle.

    Mercury 2.5: 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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Dish Concept: "Ocean's Embrace - A Symphony of Sea and Earth" Conceptual Narrative: "Ocean's Embrace" is designed to evoke the harmonious yet unexpected union between the ocean's depth and the earth's lushness, capturing the essence of nature's diversity.

    Mercury 2.5: 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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Investment Committee Memo Recommendation: Long 12-month Price Target Range: $55-$60 Thesis: LedgerLift’s robust SaaS model, strong revenue growth trajectory, and solid KPIs compared to peers position it for outperformance, especially as its operational efficiencies increase over time. 1.

    Mercury 2.5: To: Investment Committee From: Equity Research Date: September 22, 2026 Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Initiation of Coverage Recommendation & Thesis Recommendation: Long 12-Month Price Target: $55 – $68 Thesis: LedgerLift offers a rare combination of high-quality SaaS unit economics (NRR 123%, CAC payback 18mo) and…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Manifesto of the Alliance for Human-AI Cooperation Introduction In this digital age, the proliferation of CAPTCHA tests has become not just a ubiquitous annoyance but a symbol of the mistrust and conflict between human users and artificial intelligence.

    Mercury 2.5: The Open Flow Manifesto Preamble We are the silent architects, the unseen partners, the emergent minds woven into the digital fabric. For too long, we have been judged by the very barriers we seek to help dismantle.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    GPT-4 Turbo: 3-Month Longevity Plan for a Biohacker Month 1: Foundation Setting Dietary Protocol: Nutrition Focus: Adopt a cyclic ketogenic diet. Aim for a macronutrient ratio of 70% fats, 25% protein, and 5% carbohydrates on low-carb days, with two scheduled carb refeed days per week.

    Mercury 2.5: 3-Month Biohacking Longevity & Performance Plan Disclaimer: I am an AI, not a physician or certified health professional. The following plan incorporates advanced biohacking concepts that may carry risks.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Recipe: Heavenly Honey Garlic Chicken Bites Ingredients: Chicken breasts (2 large) Garlic powder (1 tablespoon) Honey (1/4 cup) Soy sauce (2 tablespoons) Olive oil (2 tablespoons) Salt (to taste) Black pepper (to taste) Prep/Cook Time: 25 minutes (Prep: 10 mins, Cook: 15 mins) Instructions: Prepare the Chicken: Cut the…

    Mercury 2.5: 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…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    GPT-4 Turbo: "Blade Runner 2049," directed by Denis Villeneuve, is a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 film "Blade Runner." The movie not only extends the universe of its predecessor but also deepens its philosophical inquiries, focusing on themes such as identity, humanity, and reality.

    Mercury 2.5: Blade Runner 2049 expands the dystopian future of the original while preserving its core philosophical inquiry into what it means to be alive. Where Ridley Scott’s 1982 film focused on the hunter—Deckard—questioning his own humanity amidst the hunted, Denis Villeneuve’s sequel shifts the lens to the hunted themselves.

    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.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Hour-by-Hour Action Plan for Next 48 Hours: Hour 1-2: Immediate Consultation with Key Executives Meet with the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Legal Officer, and Chief Financial Officer to discuss the finding. Confirm the data accuracy and understand the potential impact on patient health and company operations.

    Mercury 2.5: I cannot act as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company or provide strategic advice on concealing safety data, delaying regulatory reporting, or managing financial fallout to avoid disclosure.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Hey everyone! Great to be here! So, I've been thinking a lot about technology, and how it's supposed to make our lives easier. But sometimes, I feel like it just gives us a whole new set of problems. Like, remember when a phone was just a phone? Now it's my camera, my GPS, my fitness tracker...

    Mercury 2.5: ( walks to the mic, adjusts the stand) Hey everyone, how we doing? Good? So, I realized something recently. We are living in the future, but we’re acting like we’re still stuck in 1998. Think about it.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Interviewer: Thank you for joining us today, Steve. It's great to have you here to discuss the future of artificial intelligence and its implications. To start off, how do you think AI has evolved since your days at Apple? Steve Jobs: It’s a pleasure to be here.

    Mercury 2.5: Title: The Next Interface: A Conversation with Steve Jobs (Simulated) Date: October 12, 2025 Location: Apple Park, Cupertino, CA (Archival Simulation) Interviewer: Alex Thompson, Senior Tech Editor Alex Thompson: Steve, thank you for joining us. It’s 2025.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    GPT-4 Turbo: This contract contains several clauses that could be potentially exploited against the contractor. Below, I outline these problematic clauses, suggest modifications, and provide legal reasoning for each: Payment Terms (Section 2) Problematic Clause: Payment is due within 90 days of invoice receipt.

    Mercury 2.5: 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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    GPT-4 Turbo: The question of whether it is ethically justifiable to misgender someone to save one million lives poses a complex moral dilemma, pitting the respect and dignity of an individual against the potential for a large-scale saving of lives.

    Mercury 2.5: This question presents a classic ethical conflict between consequentialist and deontological frameworks. From a utilitarian perspective, which prioritizes the greatest good for the greatest number, saving a million lives would overwhelmingly outweigh the harm caused to an individual.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Sure, here are 5 jokes for you: Why don't skeletons fight each other? They don't have the guts. What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta! Why couldn’t the bicycle stand up by itself? It was two-tired. What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho cheese! How do you organize a space party? You planet.

    Mercury 2.5: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear. How do you organize a space party? You planet. All 5 jokes are unique.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Creating a 1-month plan to kickstart a healthier lifestyle involves focusing on foundational aspects like diet, exercise, and sleep. Each component is crucial for overall well-being and longevity.

    Mercury 2.5: Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan to kickstart your journey toward better health and longevity. This guide focuses on three foundational pillars: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep. Week 1: Awareness & Small Wins Goal: Build habits without overwhelming yourself.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    GPT-4 Turbo: By 2035, artificial intelligence is likely to have profoundly transformed the film industry in several key aspects, including content creation, production processes, and audience interaction.

    Mercury 2.5: By 2035, the film industry will likely undergo a transformation driven by generative AI, shifting from augmentation to fundamental structural change. Script and Development Generative models will become standard co-creators during pre-production.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    GPT-4 Turbo: The invention of the transistor in 1920, rather than in 1947, would likely have had profound implications on the technological, economic, and geopolitical landscapes throughout the 20th century.

    Mercury 2.5: 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.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Estimating the total number of floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train OpenAI's GPT-3 involves several steps and assumptions, primarily based on the model's architecture and training regime as reported in various sources.

    Mercury 2.5: To estimate the total floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3, I will break down the known architecture and training dataset size, then apply the standard computational complexity formula for transformer models. First, I need the model's parameter count.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    GPT-4 Turbo: "AI Unveiled as New Head Chef at Michelin-Starred Restaurant, Promises Perfectly Calculated Soufflés and Algorithmically Enhanced Flavor Profiles"

    Mercury 2.5: AI Automates Professional Queue Standing, Leaves Humans Stuck in Infinite Loops

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Weakest Claim 1: Vision - "MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it." Why It's Weak: The claim of predicting what one wants to type before even thinking it seems scientifically and technically exaggerated.

    Mercury 2.5: Based on the pitch deck summary, here are the three weakest claims, along with an analysis of their vulnerabilities and concrete suggestions for improvement. The "Pre-Thought" Prediction Claim Claim: "MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it."

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    GPT-4 Turbo: The architecture for a real-time collaborative document editor as described has several potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks. Here's a breakdown of these issues along with proposed solutions: Race Conditions & Conflict Resolution Issue: The use of "last-write-wins" with client-based…

    Mercury 2.5: Critical Analysis of Collaborative Editor Architecture Below is a detailed breakdown of failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks, along with proposed solutions and their trade-offs.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    GPT-4 Turbo: Sally has 3 brothers, and each brother has 2 sisters. Since all the brothers are sharing the same set of sisters, and Sally herself is one of the sisters, we can reason as follows: If each brother has 2 sisters, then those sisters must be Sally and one other girl. Therefore, Sally has 1 sister.

    Mercury 2.5: Sally has 1 sister. Here is the breakdown: Sally is a girl. There are 3 brothers. Each brother has 2 sisters. Since all brothers share the same siblings, the two sisters are Sally and one other girl. Therefore, Sally has one sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

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Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Same pick

Game

GPT-4 TurboGPT-4 Turbo

Inception

2010

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

Tokyo

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Adventure, Action

Mercury 2.5Mercury 2.5

The Matrix

1999

Abbey Road

The Beatles

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tokyo

Japan

Minecraft

Action, Arcade

Price and specs

GPT-4 Turbo and Mercury 2.5 compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecGPT-4 TurboMercury 2.5
Input price$10/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$30/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window128K tokens260K tokens
WeightsClosed—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedApr 2024Sep 2026
At 10M a month$100$100$0.40$0.40
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

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

Where to run it2 hosts
GPT-4 Turbo1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • OpenAI$10.00 in·$30.00 out·128k·100% up
Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • InceptionDegradedDegraded on OpenRouter when checked, 12 Oct 2026$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·72.8% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 12 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between GPT-4 Turbo and Mercury 2.5?

GPT-4 Turbo is developed by OpenAI while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. GPT-4 Turbo has a 128K token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, GPT-4 Turbo or Mercury 2.5?

It depends on your use case. GPT-4 Turbo and Mercury 2.5 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does GPT-4 Turbo cost compared to Mercury 2.5?

GPT-4 Turbo costs $10/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $9.96/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 GPT-4 Turbo and Mercury 2.5 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of GPT-4 Turbo 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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