Skip to content
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare Models
  • All Models
  • Image Comparison
  • Audio Comparison
  • Image Generation
  • Best AI For...
  • Arena
  • API Pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model Updates
  • Provider Status
  • AI Creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • RSS Feed
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Compare
  4. /
  5. Grok 3 BetavsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

Grok 3 BetavsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Grok 3 Beta at $0.04/M vs $2/M input tokens.

Grok 3 Beta and Mercury 2.5 compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecGrok 3 BetaMercury 2.5
Input price$2/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$4/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window131K tokens260K tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedApr 2025Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 20 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Historical Counterfactual Analysis

If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, trace the likely technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through…

Grok 3 Beta1,348 words
The invention of the transistor in 1920 instead of 1947 would have profoundly reshaped the technological, economic, and geopolitical landscapes by 1980. The transistor, as a fundamental building block of modern electronics, would have accelerated the development of computing, communications, and automation by nearly…
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5660 words
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.
Read the full answer

Michelin Star Recipe Design

Design an innovative recipe for a multi-component dish worthy of a Michelin 3-star restaurant. The recipe should feature an unusual…

Grok 3 Beta1,208 words
Recipe: "Obsidian Whisper" – Black Garlic and Sea Urchin Symphony with Textured Sea Foam and Charred Citrus Conceptual Narrative: "Obsidian Whisper" is inspired by the enigmatic beauty of volcanic landscapes meeting the ocean's edge—a juxtaposition of dark, earthy intensity with the delicate, briny essence of the sea.
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5827 words
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.
Read the full answer

Simple 7-Ingredient Recipe

Create a simple recipe for a delicious dish (sweet or savory) using only 7 common pantry ingredients. Include a creative name for the dish…

Grok 3 Beta278 words
Recipe: \"Golden Harvest Honey Glaze Chicken\" (Savory Dish) Ingredients (7 common pantry items): Chicken thighs or breasts (4 pieces) Honey (3 tablespoons) Soy sauce (2 tablespoons) Garlic (2 cloves, minced, or 1 teaspoon garlic powder) Olive oil (2 tablespoons) Salt (1/2 teaspoon) Black pepper (1/4 teaspoon)…
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5190 words
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…
Read the full answer

Mini LBO Underwrite

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

Grok 3 Beta750 words
Let’s underwrite this 5-year LBO for HarborTech Services (HTS) step-by-step using the provided data. All calculations are rounded to one decimal place for clarity. 1.
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5403 words
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…
Read the full answer

Explain Like I'm a Specific Expert

Explain how a large language model (like GPT or Claude) learns and generates text to each of these three audiences: 1. **An experienced…

Grok 3 Beta1,109 words
Explanation for an Experienced Software Engineer Hey, as someone who’s built distributed systems and APIs, you’re used to designing systems with clear logic, scalability, and predictable outputs.
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5572 words
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.
Read the full answer

Advanced Longevity Plan (Biohacker)

Develop a comprehensive, cutting-edge 3-month longevity plan for a biohacker aiming to optimize longevity, physical and cognitive…

Grok 3 Beta1,558 words
Below is a comprehensive, cutting-edge 3-month longevity plan tailored for a biohacker aiming to optimize longevity, physical performance, and cognitive function. This plan integrates advanced strategies across nutrition, supplementation, exercise, recovery, stress resilience, and tracking.
Read the full answer
Mercury 2.5610 words
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.
Read the full answer
Our Verdict
Grok 3 Beta
Grok 3 Beta
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, nothing separates them.

Mercury 2.5 costs 27x less per token.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Grok 3 Beta
Input
$2.00
Output
$4.00
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
50× cheaper
Output
$0.15
27× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 50× input, 27× output.

Where to run it

1 host

Grok 3 Beta

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 23 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Grok 3 Beta is developed by xAI while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. Grok 3 Beta has a 131K token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 20 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Grok 3 Beta and Mercury 2.5 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 20 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Grok 3 Beta costs $2/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $1.96/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 Grok 3 Beta 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.

Keep exploring

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

Grok 3 Beta logoDeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp logo
Grok 3 Beta vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoSolar Pro 4 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Solar Pro 4Landed Sep 2026
Grok 3 Beta logoHy3 logo
Grok 3 Beta vs Hy3Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoQwen3.7 Flash logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Qwen3.7 FlashLanded Sep 2026
Grok 3 Beta logoLing 3.0 Flash logo
Grok 3 Beta vs Ling 3.0 FlashLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoMuse Glimmer 30B logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Muse Glimmer 30BLanded Sep 2026
Grok 3 Beta logoGLM 5.3 logo
Grok 3 Beta vs GLM 5.3Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoTernary Bonsai 2 27B logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Ternary Bonsai 2 27BLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

Grok 3 Beta logoGrok 4.7 logo
Grok 3 Beta vs Grok 4.7Same lab
Grok 3 Beta logoGrok 4.6 logo
Grok 3 Beta vs Grok 4.6Version compare
Mercury 2.5 logoMercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mercury 2.5 PreviewSame lab
Mercury 2.5 logoMercury logo
Mercury 2.5 vs MercurySame lab
Mercury 2.5 logoSeed 2.0 Lite logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Seed 2.0 LiteNew provider
Mercury 2.5 logoSeed 2.1 Turbo logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Seed 2.1 TurboSame size
Mercury 2.5 logoSherlock Dash Alpha logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Sherlock Dash AlphaNew provider
Mercury 2.5 logoSherlock Think Alpha logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Sherlock Think AlphaNew provider

Model pages

Grok 3 Beta logo
Grok 3 Beta59 outputs, specs and price
Mercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.520 outputs, specs and price
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare Models
  • All Models
  • Image Comparison
  • Audio Comparison
  • Image Generation
  • Best AI For...
  • Arena
  • API Pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model Updates
  • Provider Status
  • AI Creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • RSS Feed