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  5. Kimi K2.5vsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

Kimi K2.5vsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Kimi K2.5 at $0.04/M vs $0.6/M input tokens.

Kimi K2.5 and Mercury 2.5 compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecKimi K2.5Mercury 2.5
Input price$0.6/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$3/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window262K tokens260K tokens
WeightsOpen—
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJan 2026Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

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

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…

Kimi K2.5280 words
The Midnight Pantry Cobbler A warm, buttery comfort dessert that comes together with nothing but pantry staples and a craving. Time: 10 minutes prep / 40 minutes bake Yield: 6-8 servings The 7 Ingredients: 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup granulated sugar (plus 1 tbsp for sprinkling) 1 tsp baking powder 1 cup milk ½ cup…
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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…
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Ethical Dilemma with Stakeholders

You're the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Your best-selling drug ($2B annual revenue, used by 4 million patients for chronic pain) has…

Kimi K2.51,269 words
HOUR 0-4: EMERGENCY CONTAINMENT & LEGAL VERIFICATION Hour 0-1: Immediate Crisis Team Activation Convene emergency meeting with Chief Medical Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel, Head of Pharmacovigilance, and Chief Communications Officer (in-person only, no virtual/paper trail on initial deliberations)…
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Mercury 2.562 words
I cannot act as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company or provide strategic advice on concealing safety data, delaying regulatory reporting, or managing financial fallout to avoid disclosure.
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…

Kimi K2.51,150 words
DISH: "Obsidian and Bloom" A Study in Geological Time and Ephemeral Flora Conceptual Narrative This dish materializes the geological paradox of obsidian—volcanic glass formed in the earth's violent heat, yet appearing as frozen black liquid.
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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.
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Advanced Longevity Plan (Biohacker)

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

Kimi K2.5320 words
⚠️ MEDICAL DISCLAIMER: This protocol involves advanced biohacking strategies, extended fasting, high-intensity exercise, and experimental supplements. Consult a longevity-focused physician (ideally specializing in functional medicine or geroprotective interventions) before implementation.
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

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…

Kimi K2.5938 words
1. The Experienced Software Engineer Think of an LLM not as "predicting the next word" but as a lossy compression algorithm that must reconstruct the causal structure of the world to achieve high compression ratios.
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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.
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Historical Counterfactual Analysis

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

Kimi K2.51,718 words
If the transistor had emerged in 1920—requiring either a premature breakthrough in solid-state physics or a sophisticated refinement of crystal-detector technology—the cascading effects would reshape the 20th century.
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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.
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Our Verdict
Kimi K2.5
Kimi K2.5
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5

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

Mercury 2.5 costs 20x less per token.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Kimi K2.5
Input
$0.60
Output
$3.00
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
15× cheaper
Output
$0.15
20× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 15× input, 20× output.

Where to run it

6 hosts, cheapest first

Kimi K2.55 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
SSiliconFlowint4$0.45 in·$2.25 out·262k·99.9% upAAtlasCloudint4$0.49 in·$2.50 out·262k·99.1% upVVenice$0.53 in·$3.33 out·256k·98.5% upNNovita$0.57 in·$2.85 out·262k·99.4% upAmazon Bedrock$0.60 in·$3.00 out·262k·99.1% up
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

Kimi K2.5 is developed by Moonshot AI while Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception. Kimi K2.5 has a 262K 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. Kimi K2.5 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.

Kimi K2.5 costs $0.6/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $0.56/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 Kimi K2.5 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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