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  5. Grok 3 Mini BetavsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

Grok 3 Mini BetavsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Grok 3 Mini Beta at $0.04/M vs $0.4/M input tokens.

Grok 3 Mini Beta and Mercury 2.5 compared across 5 shared prompts
SpecGrok 3 Mini BetaMercury 2.5
Input price$0.4/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$0.8/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window131K tokens260K tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedApr 2025Sep 2026
Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
Grok 3 Mini Beta
Grok 3 Mini BetaRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Mercury 2.5 has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.

Mercury 2.5 costs 5.3x less per token.

Too close to call
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Grok 3 Mini Beta
Input
$0.40
Output
$0.80
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
10× cheaper
Output
$0.15
5.3× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 10× input, 5.3× output.

Where to run it

1 host

Grok 3 Mini 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 Mini Beta is developed by xAI while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. Grok 3 Mini Beta has a 131K token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 5 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Grok 3 Mini Beta and Mercury 2.5 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 5 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Grok 3 Mini Beta costs $0.4/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $0.36/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 Mini 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.

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Rival
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