GPT-5vsMercury 2
Mercury 2 is cheaper than GPT-5 at $0.25/M vs $1.25/M input tokens.
| Spec | GPT-5 | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $1.25/M tokens | $0.25/M tokens |
| Output price | $10/M tokens | $0.75/M tokens |
| Context window | 400K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Weights | Closed | — |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Mar 2026 |
Our Verdict
GPT-5
Mercury 2Runner-up
Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, GPT-5 has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window, major provider backing.
Mercury 2 costs 13x less per token.
Too close to call
API pricing
Cost per 1M tokens
GPT-5
Input
$1.25
Output
$10.00
Mercury 2
Input
$0.25
5.0× cheaper
Output
$0.75
13× cheaper
Mercury 2 is cheaper on both: 5.0× input, 13× output.
Where to run it
3 hosts
Mercury 21 host
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 9 Sep 2026.
Writing DNA
Style Comparison
Similarity
54%
Mercury 2 uses 8.2x more emoji
GPT-5
Mercury 2
65%Vocabulary53%
13wSentence Length22w
0.20Hedging0.40
0.2Bold6.6
4.6Lists2.6
0.00Emoji0.08
0.16Headings0.87
0.03Transitions0.14
Based on 16 + 23 text responses
Research
What we learned reading every model
FAQ
Common questions
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