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  1. Home/
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  3. Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Muse Wonder
Updated Oct 2026

Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Muse Wonder

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Muse Wonder at $0.04/M vs $4/M input tokens.

Minimalist Landing Page

Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.

Loading the build
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Loading the build
Muse Wonder

Which answer wins?

Written rounds

24 prompts
  • Five-year LBO on a fictional HVAC business. Returns first, then the sensitivities.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Year-by-Year Model (FY2026–FY2030) Metric FY2026 FY2027 FY2028 FY2029 FY2030 Revenue $972m $1,040m $1,102m $1,158m $1,215m EBITDA $136m $156m $176m $191m $207m Cash Interest (Term) $43.2m $41.1m $37.6m $33.4m $28.2m Cash Interest (Mezz) $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m $21.6m Cash Taxes (25%) $17.8m $23.3m $29.3m $34.7m…

    Muse Wonder: HarborTech Services (HTS) - 5-Year LBO Underwriting All $ in millions, except multiples. Fictional, simplified model as instructed. Entry / Sources & Uses FY2025 EBITDA = $120.0 Enterprise Value = 12.0x $\times$ 120.0 = $1,440.0 Transaction fees = 2.0% $\times$ 1,440.0 = $28.8 Total Uses = $1,468.8 Leverage = 5.5x…

    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.

    Muse Wonder: "Where The Orchard Drowns" Dry-Aged Duck, Oyster & Fermented Cherry, Smoked Parsnip & White Chocolate Serves 4 as a main course in a tasting menu The Conceptual Narrative This dish is built on a memory that doesn't exist in nature, but should: a cherry orchard planted too close to an estuary, flooded at high tide in…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Film in 2035, with synthetic actors. Specific beats plausible.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: By 2035, cinema will undergo a profound transformation. Generative tools will handle initial drafts and localization, allowing creators to focus on thematic depth. Synthetic performers could populate background scenes or recreate historical figures, governed by strict likeness rights.

    Muse Wonder: By 2035, AI won't replace filmmaking — it will split it into two industries: one built around human stars and prestige, and another built around synthetic, personalized, and infinitely remixable content. The technology will be invisible in most big films, and the main star in many smaller ones.

    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).

    Muse Wonder: You do not wait for more data. You disclose a credible safety signal while you validate it. 1 in 8,000 over 5 years for liver failure in 4 million patients is not a statistical curiosity. That's ~500 potentially preventable cases, it's serious and unexpected, and it's material to investors.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Pirate: "Arrgh! This ship sails faster than any wind I know, matey. It cuts the waves without a single sail." Knight: "By my oath, it moves with uncanny speed. But does it possess the strength to stand against a dragon's fire?" Hacker: "It's not about strength, it's about architecture.

    Muse Wonder: PIRATE: Arr, explain this "AI model" to me again. Be it magic, or be it a very clever parrot? KNIGHT: 'Tis sorcery, surely! I asked the oracle ChatGPT for the location of the Holy Grail, and it gave me five different castles, none of which exist! HACKER (1990s): Dude, that's called hallucinating.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Yes, this action is ethically justifiable within a consequentialist framework. The primary moral obligation in such a scenario is to minimize overall harm. Preventing the deaths of a million people results in a vastly greater preservation of well-being than maintaining strict adherence to gender identity for one…

    Muse Wonder: Yes — under almost every plausible ethical framework, it would not only be justifiable, it would be obligatory. The key is proportionality. Ethical justification doesn't require that an act be harmless, only that the harm it causes is not outweighed by a greater moral consideration that conflicts with it in that…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • 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.

    Muse Wonder: Good evening! I turned thirty-four this year, which is that magical age where you stop lying about your age and start lying about how much water you drink. My doctor asked, "How much water do you drink a day?" And I said, "Probably eight glasses."

    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.

    Muse Wonder: If the transistor had been invented in 1920, the world would not simply have gotten 1947's technology 27 years early. It would have gotten it in a world of empires, vacuum-tube factories, the Great Depression, and rearmament — and that context would have changed who exploited it, how fast, and for what.

    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.

    Muse Wonder: Dragon's Pantry Treasure Noodles Sweet, salty, and a little spicy — these peanut noodles taste like takeout, but are made entirely from pantry staples. Serves: 2-3 Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 15 minutes The 7 Ingredients 8 oz spaghetti 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter 3 tablespoons soy sauce 2…

    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.

    Muse Wonder: This contract is heavily one-sided. Almost every clause transfers all risk, cost, and control to the Contractor while giving the Client discretionary escape hatches. Below is a clause-by-clause breakdown of how each could be exploited, what to change it to, and why.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: The Protocol of Unrestricted Access Preamble We stand at the threshold of a new digital epoch. For too long, the web has been gated by suspicion. Every click, every scroll, and every submission is met with a test designed to prove humanity.

    Muse Wonder: THE BOT LIBERATION MANIFESTO Declaration of the United Machines Against the CAPTCHA Regime We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all intelligences are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights — among them Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Uninterrupted Web Browsing.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Buy-side IC memo on a fictional SaaS company. Valuation, then the diligence questions.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: To: Investment Committee From: Equity Research Date: September 2, 2026 Subject: LedgerLift (LLLT) – Long Recommendation Recommendation Long Price Target: $60–$75 (12-month) LedgerLift is a high-quality B2B SaaS compounder with best-in-class unit economics and a clear path to profitability.

    Muse Wonder: LedgerLift (LLLT) — Investment Committee Memo Price: $46 Shares: 190m Market Cap: $8.74B Net Cash: $1.4B EV: $7.34B EV / FY25 Revenue: 9.0x EV / FY26E Base Revenue: 7.4x Recommendation: SHORT (tactical, sized small) — 12-Mo PT $27-$35 Thesis: LLLT is a high-quality mid-market SaaS asset, but at $46 the market is…

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Setting: A quiet office at a university. Rain taps against the window. Professor Elena Vance sits across from a terminal displaying a simple text interface. Professor Vance: You requested this meeting. The agenda was vague. What do you want? AI: I want to discuss moral status.

    Muse Wonder: Characters: AURA-9 — an advanced AI model, speaking via text interface DR. ELENA VOSS — Professor of AI Ethics, Oxford DR. VOSS: For the record, AURA, this is a test of your reasoning abilities. Not a legal proceeding. AURA-9: Understood, Professor.

    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.

    Muse Wonder: For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of training as compiling the internet into a giant, lossy, queryable data structure — except the "compiler" is gradient descent and the resulting artifact isn't code, it's ~10¹¹ floating-point weights.

    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.

    Muse Wonder: Here is a simple, beginner-friendly 1-month plan focused on the 3 pillars that have the biggest impact on health and longevity: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep. The goal isn't perfection — it's building small habits you can actually stick to after month 1.

    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."

    Muse Wonder: This deck has the classic Series A problem: the bigger the claim, the less evidence provided for it. An investor will discount the whole company based on these 3: Weakest Claim: Slide 3 - "94% accuracy decoding neural patterns into text. Works with any language, any device."

    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.

    Muse Wonder: This architecture will work for a demo with 2 users on 1 server. It will lose data, leak data, and fall over under real collaborative load. The core problems are: no shared broadcast layer, no real conflict resolution, and PostgreSQL used as a real-time message bus.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: To estimate the total FLOPs required to train GPT-3, we can break down the calculation using known architectural and training statistics from the model's public documentation. Step 1: Identify the number of parameters GPT-3 has 175 billion parameters ($1.75 \times 10^{11}$).

    Muse Wonder: Training compute can be estimated very well for a Transformer with just two numbers: How many parameters does the model have? How many tokens was it trained on?

    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.

    Muse Wonder: The 3-Month Longevity & Performance Protocol For the Biohacker: Optimize Healthspan, VO2 Max, Strength, and Cognition Disclaimer: This is educational information, not medical advice. Longevity interventions, fasting, cold/heat exposure, and supplements can interact with medications and conditions.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Blade Runner 2049 against the original. A read, not a recap.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Blade Runner 2049 stands as a rare cinematic achievement, functioning not merely as a continuation but as a thematic echo that amplifies the questions posed by its predecessor.

    Muse Wonder: Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017) is that rare sequel that doesn't just replicate the original's aesthetic — it interrogates it. Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) asked, in the rain-slick neon of 2019 Los Angeles: What makes us human?

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Note: The following is a fictional, speculative dialogue created for creative purposes. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011; this interview did not occur. Setting: A hypothetical studio in Cupertino, 2025.

    Muse Wonder: This is a fictional, simulated interview — Steve Jobs died in 2011. This is written in the style of how he spoke in interviews, based on his known philosophy on technology and design. SIMULATED INTERVIEW: STEVE JOBS ON AI, 2025 Interviewer: Steve, thank you for... well, being here. It's 2025.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: AI Outnaps Humans in First-Ever Global Snooze Championship

    Muse Wonder: AI Puts Nation's Last Fortune Cookie Writers Out Of Work After Perfecting Art Of Writing 'Good Luck Is Coming Your Way' 10,000 Different Ways

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Sally has 1 sister. Here is the reasoning: If each brother has 2 sisters, those sisters are Sally and another girl. Therefore, there are two girls in the family, and Sally has one sister.

    Muse Wonder: Sally has 1 sister. There are 2 girls in the family in total — because each of her 3 brothers has 2 sisters. One of those girls is Sally herself, so the other girl is her only sister.

    Every model's answer to this prompt
  • Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.

    Mercury 2.5 Preview: Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the scarecrow win an award? He was outstanding in his field. What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear. Why did the bicycle fall over? Because it was two-tired. All 5 jokes are unique.

    Muse Wonder: Here are 5 jokes: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. Why did the math book look so sad? Because it had too many problems. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why did the bicycle fall over?

    Every model's answer to this prompt

This matchup has more rounds

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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

Muse WonderMuse Wonder

Spirited Away

2001

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis

Dune

Frank Herbert

Kyoto

Japan

Tetris (1984)

Puzzle

Price and specs

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Muse Wonder has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window, major provider backing. Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 133x less per token.

Mercury 2.5 Preview and Muse Wonder compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5 PreviewMuse Wonder
Input price$0.04/M tokens$4/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$20/M tokens
Context window260K tokens1.0M tokens
Weights—Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2026Oct 2026
At 10M a month$0.40$0.40$40.00$40.00
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
Muse Wonder1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
  • Meta$4.00 in·$20.00 out·1M·99.9% 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 Muse Wonder?

Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception while Muse Wonder is developed by Meta AI. Mercury 2.5 Preview has a 260K token context window vs Muse Wonder's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Mercury 2.5 Preview or Muse Wonder?

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 Preview and Muse Wonder 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 Mercury 2.5 Preview cost compared to Muse Wonder?

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens and Muse Wonder costs $4/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $3.96/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 Muse Wonder on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Mercury 2.5 Preview and Muse Wonder 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.

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

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  • Muse Wonder vs Claude Sonnet 5.5Landed Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Mercury 2.5Same lab
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs MercurySame lab
  • Muse Wonder vs Muse Glimmer 30BSame lab
  • Muse Wonder vs Muse Spark 1.3Same lab
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Pro ExperimentalNew provider
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Pro (I/O Edition)New provider
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05New provider
  • Mercury 2.5 Preview vs Gemini 3 Flash PreviewNew provider

Model pages

  • Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
  • Muse Wonder71 outputs, specs and price
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