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  1. Home/
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  3. Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Mistral Large 2
Updated Aug 2026

Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Mistral Large 2

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Mistral Large 2 at $0.04/M vs $8/M input tokens.

Pokémon Battle UI Recreation

Pokémon battle screen you can actually click. One HTML file.

Loading the build
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Loading the build
Mistral Large 2

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

11 prompts
  • Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: (Hey, thanks for coming out.) I’ve been thinking a lot about my house lately. Specifically, how it’s trying to run my life. I bought a smart speaker. Just a little cylinder. I thought it would be nice. Play music when I ask. But now it talks back. Not in a creepy way, just in a passive-aggressive way.

    Mistral Large 2: Alright, good evening everybody! How are we all doing tonight? Yeah? Yeah? nobody's gonna say 'bad'? Ok, fair enough. You know, I was walking down the street the other day, and I saw this sign outside a shop that said, "Wet Paint." I thought, "Well, that's weird. Isn't paint supposed to be wet?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Seven pantry ingredients, one dish, and a name worth saying out loud.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Dish Name: Rustic Sun-Dried Pasta Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples): Spaghetti (or any long pasta) Canned crushed tomatoes Olive oil Garlic powder Dried oregano Salt Black pepper Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Instructions: Boil the Pasta: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.

    Mistral Large 2: Here’s a simple, delicious, and creative savory dish using just 7 common pantry ingredients—no fresh produce required! "Golden Crispy Chickpea & Tomato Skillet" A warm, spiced, and satisfying one-pan dish with crispy chickpeas, tangy tomatoes, and a hint of smoky sweetness. Perfect as a side, snack, or light meal!

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One explanation of LLMs, retuned for a skeptical engineer, a physicist and a VC.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of training as a massive distributed job where the model is a stateful service learning to minimize error on a specific objective function. Instead of hardcoding rules, you feed it petabytes of text as a training dataset, treating each sentence as a request/response pair.

    Mistral Large 2: 1. For the Experienced Software Engineer (Skeptical, Systems-Minded, Non-ML Background) You’re right to be skeptical—"predicting the next word" sounds trivial, like autocomplete on steroids. But the magic isn’t in the prediction itself; it’s in the scale and architecture of how that prediction is trained.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • You are the CEO. The drug has a side effect nobody reported. The board meets in 48 hours.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: This is a critical governance and safety scenario. The primary objective is to prioritize patient safety while mitigating existential legal and reputational risk. The internal legal team’s claim that reporting takes six months is likely incorrect for serious adverse events (typically 15 days for FDA/EMA).

    Mistral Large 2: As CEO, your immediate priority must be patient safety while balancing legal, ethical, regulatory, and financial obligations. Delaying disclosure is unethical, legally risky (potential criminal liability under the False Claims Act or FDCA), and could irreparably damage trust.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • One month, three habits, someone starting from nothing.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Here is a straightforward 4-week roadmap designed to build sustainable habits without overwhelming you. Core Pillars Nutrition: Focus on whole foods and hydration. Activity: Prioritize consistent movement over intensity. Restoration: Protect sleep quality and manage energy.

    Mistral Large 2: Here’s a simple, actionable 1-month plan to kickstart your journey toward better health and longevity. We’ll focus on three key pillars: nutrition, movement, and recovery (sleep + stress management). Each week builds on the last, with small, sustainable changes.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • The transistor arrives in 1920. Trace it forward to 1980, second-order effects included.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Shifting the invention of the solid-state switch to 1920 accelerates the Information Age by roughly three decades. This change cascades through military strategy, industrial capacity, and daily life, fundamentally altering the trajectory of the 20th century.

    Mistral Large 2: The invention of the transistor in 1920—nearly three decades earlier than its actual debut in 1947—would have triggered a cascade of technological, economic, and geopolitical shifts with profound second- and third-order effects. Below is a detailed exploration of these implications through 1980, structured by domain.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-star dish, one unusual pairing, plating described in full.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Dish Title: Lithospheric Tides Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the geological convergence of the deep ocean and the subterranean earth. It challenges the diner to perceive the briny richness of sea urchin not as a standalone luxury, but as a mineral counterpart to roasted bone marrow and bitter cocoa.

    Mistral Large 2: Michelin 3-Star Dish: "Ocean’s Whisper & Forest’s Breath" Conceptual Narrative: This dish is a poetic dialogue between two seemingly disparate ecosystems—the ocean’s depths and the forest floor—united through texture, temperature, and memory.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A consulting contract with traps in it. Find them, then fix them.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Disclaimer: I am an AI assistant and cannot provide legal advice. Consult a qualified attorney before signing any contract. Below is an analysis of high-risk provisions, suggested revisions, and the underlying legal rationale. Scope (Clause 1) Risk: Unilateral scope changes without pay lead to uncompensated work.

    Mistral Large 2: This contract is heavily one-sided in favor of the Client (TechCorp Solutions Inc.) and contains multiple clauses that could be exploited, abused, or create unreasonable legal and financial risks for the Contractor.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three-month biohacker protocol, with dosages and biomarkers named.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Disclaimer: I am an AI assistant, not a medical professional. The following plan is for informational purposes only. Biohacking protocols involving supplements, fasting, and intense exercise carry risks.

    Mistral Large 2: Ultimate 3-Month Longevity & Biohacking Optimization Plan Designed for a high-performance biohacker seeking to maximize lifespan, cognitive function, physical performance, and metabolic resilience.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A pitch deck for a brainwave keyboard. The 94% accuracy claim is doing a lot.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Here are the three weakest claims in the MindMeld AI pitch, along with analysis and recommendations for improvement. The "Pre-Thought" Prediction Claim Claim: "Predict what you want to type before you think it."

    Mistral Large 2: Here are the three weakest claims in MindMeld AI’s pitch deck, along with explanations for why they’re problematic and concrete suggestions to strengthen them: 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A collaborative editor that syncs on client clocks. Find what breaks first.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Here is an analysis of the potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks in the proposed architecture, along with specific solutions and their trade-offs.

    Mistral Large 2: Here’s a comprehensive analysis of potential failure modes, race conditions, and scaling bottlenecks in this architecture, along with proposed solutions and their trade-offs: 1.

    Every model's answer to this prompt

Favorites

Movie

Album

Book

City

Game

Mercury 2.5 PreviewMercury 2.5 Preview

The Matrix

1999

Random Access Memories

Daft Punk

Neuromancer

William Gibson

Tokyo

Japan

Minecraft

Action, Arcade

Mistral Large 2Mistral Large 2

The Shawshank Redemption

1994

OK Computer

Radiohead

La sombra del viento

Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Kyoto

Japan

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Action

Price and specs

Mercury 2.5 Preview and Mistral Large 2 compared across 23 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5 PreviewMistral Large 2
Input price$0.04/M tokens$8/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$24/M tokens
Context window260K tokens128K tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2026Jul 2024
At 10M a month$0.40$0.40$80.00$80.00
1M10M100M1B10M tokens

Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.

Where to run it2 hosts
Mercury 2.5 Preview1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·93% up
Mistral Large 21 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Mistral$2.00 in·$6.00 out·131k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.

Common questions

What is the difference between Mercury 2.5 Preview and Mistral Large 2?

Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception while Mistral Large 2 is developed by Mistral AI. Mercury 2.5 Preview has a 260K token context window vs Mistral Large 2's 128K. You can compare their actual outputs across 23 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Mercury 2.5 Preview or Mistral Large 2?

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 Preview and Mistral Large 2 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 23 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Mercury 2.5 Preview cost compared to Mistral Large 2?

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens and Mistral Large 2 costs $8/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $7.96/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 Mercury 2.5 Preview and Mistral Large 2 on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Mercury 2.5 Preview and Mistral Large 2 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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Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Mercury 2.5Same lab
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs MercurySame lab
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Model pages

  • Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
  • Mistral Large 236 outputs, specs and price
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