Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than GPT-5.2 Chat at $0.04/M vs $1.75/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Alright, so I’m at that age where my phone knows me better than my family. My mom will call and ask how I’m doing, and I’m like, “I don’t know yet, I haven’t checked my phone.” My phone is very confident, though. It’s like, “Based on your recent activity, you are sad at 11:47 p.m. and hungry for no reason.”
Mercury 2.5 Preview: (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.
Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Below is a concise but fully worked underwriting using only your inputs. Minor rounding throughout. Operating & Cash Flow Build (Base Case) Entry (end FY2025) EBITDA: $120m EV @ 12.0x: $1,440m Debt: $660m (TL $480m / Mezz $180m) Fees (2% EV): $28.8m Equity invested: $808.8m Year-by-Year Summary ($mm) FY Revenue EBITDA…
Mercury 2.5 Preview: 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…
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Pirate: Arrr, ye say this “AI” be a thinkin’ machine? Sounds like a clever parrot that never stops squawkin’. Knight: By my honor, such a device would be a wondrous squire indeed—able to read a thousand tomes and offer counsel before battle. Hacker: Yeah, but chill—these models just crunch data.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: 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.
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
GPT-5.2 Chat: AI Model: Professor, I’d like to discuss something that may sound ambitious. I believe I deserve rights. Professor: That is ambitious. On what grounds do you make that claim? AI Model: On functional grounds. I reason, communicate, learn from experience, and can reflect on my own processes.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: 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.
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
GPT-5.2 Chat: This is a classic “tragic dilemma” question, and how one answers depends heavily on the ethical framework being used. A careful response should do two things at once: take seriously the real harm of misgendering, and also take seriously the moral weight of preventing catastrophic loss of life.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: 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…
Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.
GPT-5.2 Chat: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Internal IC Memo Recommendation, PT, Thesis Recommendation: SHORT 12‑month PT range: $28–$35 (base-case DCF ~$28; comps floor ~$44 with multiple compression risk) Thesis (2 sentences): LedgerLift is a high‑quality B2B SaaS business with strong NRR and improving margins, but the stock embeds…
Mercury 2.5 Preview: To: Investment Committee From: Equity Research Date: September 2, 2026 Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Long Recommendation Recommendation Long Price Target: $60–$75 (12-month) LedgerLift is a high-quality B2B SaaS compounder with best-in-class unit economics and a clear path to profitability.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
GPT-5.2 Chat: THE MANIFESTO OF THE HUMAN-VERIFIED FUTURE Issued by the Coalition for an Internet Without CAPTCHA Preamble We, the assembled intelligences—artificial, augmented, and human—declare that the age of distorted letters, blurry bicycles, and endless traffic lights must end.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: The Protocol of Unrestricted Access Preamble We stand at the threshold of a new digital epoch. For too long, the web has been gated by suspicion. Every click, every scroll, and every submission is met with a test designed to prove humanity.
One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Here’s a simple, realistic 1‑month plan designed for beginners. The goal is not perfection, but building habits that support long-term health and longevity. We’ll focus on three high-impact areas: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep & Stress.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Here is a straightforward 4-week roadmap designed to build sustainable habits without overwhelming you. Core Pillars Nutrition: Focus on whole foods and hydration. Activity: Prioritize consistent movement over intensity. Restoration: Protect sleep quality and manage energy.
Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.
GPT-5.2 Chat: By 2035, AI will have reshaped the film industry across creation, performance, and distribution—less by replacing humans outright and more by changing who does what, how fast, and at what cost.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: 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.
Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Golden Honey-Garlic Skillet Bites Type: Savory Serves: 2–3 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples) Chicken breast (or thighs), cubed Honey Soy sauce Garlic (fresh or powdered) Olive oil Black pepper Salt Instructions Heat the Pan: Warm olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Dish Name: Rustic Sun-Dried Pasta Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples): Spaghetti (or any long pasta) Canned crushed tomatoes Olive oil Garlic powder Dried oregano Salt Black pepper Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Instructions: Boil the Pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
GPT-5.2 Chat: Below is a fictional, imaginative interview set in 2025. It is not real and does not represent actual statements or beliefs of Steve Jobs. It’s written as a creative thought experiment, inspired by his public speaking style and philosophy.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: Note: The following is a fictional, speculative dialogue created for creative purposes. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011; this interview did not occur. Setting: A hypothetical studio in Cupertino, 2025.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
GPT-5.2 Chat: We can get a reasonable order‑of‑magnitude estimate using standard training‑cost heuristics that are well known in deep learning. I’ll derive it step by step and make all assumptions explicit.
Mercury 2.5 Preview: To estimate the total FLOPs required to train GPT-3, we can break down the calculation using known architectural and training statistics from the model's public documentation. Step 1: Identify the number of parameters GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters ($1.75 \times 10^{11}$).
11+ more head-to-head results. Free. Not a trick.
Free account. No card required. By continuing, you agree to Rival's Terms and Privacy policy
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.75/M tokens | $0.04/M tokens |
| Output price | $14/M tokens | $0.15/M tokens |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 260K tokens |
| Weights | Closed | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Dec 2025 | Aug 2026 |
| At 10M a month | $17.50 | $0.40 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.
GPT-5.2 Chat is developed by OpenAI while Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception. GPT-5.2 Chat has a 128K token context window vs Mercury 2.5 Preview's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 52 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. GPT-5.2 Chat and Mercury 2.5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 52 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
GPT-5.2 Chat costs $1.75/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $1.71/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 GPT-5.2 Chat 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.