What is the difference between Inkling and Mercury?

Inkling is developed by Thinking Machines while Mercury is developed by Inception. Inkling has a 1.0M token context window vs Mercury's 32K. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Inkling or Mercury?

It depends on your use case. Inkling and Mercury 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 Inkling cost compared to Mercury?

Inkling costs $1/M input tokens and Mercury costs $10/M input tokens. Inkling is $9.00/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 Inkling and Mercury on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Inkling and Mercury 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.

Updated Jul 2026

InklingvsMercury

Inkling is cheaper than Mercury at $1/M vs $10/M input tokens.

Inkling and Mercury compared across 54 shared prompts
Spec	Inkling	Mercury
Input price	$1/M tokens	$10/M tokens
Output price	$4.05/M tokens	$10/M tokens
Context window	1.0M tokens	32K tokens
Weights	Open	—
Free API (OpenRouter)	Yes (1 provider)	No
Released	Jul 2026	Jun 2025