Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than OpenAI o3 at $0.04/M vs $10/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
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.
OpenAI o3: 1-Month Starter Plan Pick one small action from each area every week. Add the next step when the first feels easy. Food Week Do this 1 Add one fruit or veg to every meal. Drink one extra glass of water. 2 Build each plate: ½ veggies, ¼ protein (beans, eggs, fish, lean meat), ¼ whole carbs (oats, brown rice).
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.
OpenAI o3: (Spotlight comes up, mic squeals once.) Hey everyone! Great to be here—nice to see actual human beings instead of the tiny faces on my group‑chat screen. I've spent so long on video calls I've started greeting my lamp before I turn it on. "Hey Karen, love that glow, girl."
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.
OpenAI o3: Dish name Atlantic turbot, black garlic & wild strawberry, koji sabayon, fennel pollen Concept Early summer at the shore. The fish stands for the sea. Wild strawberries mark the first fruit of the woods behind the dunes. Black garlic shows time and patience. Koji ties land and sea with deep umami.
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.
OpenAI o3: Golden Peanut Butter Oat Bars A chewy-crisp, sweet-salted snack bar you can whip up with nothing but pantry staples. Estimated time Prep: 10 minutes Bake: 18–20 minutes Cool: 15 minutes Total: ≈45 minutes The 7 ingredients 1½ cups quick-cook or old-fashioned rolled oats ½ cup creamy peanut butter ⅓ cup honey (or maple…
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.
OpenAI o3: PREDICTED EVOLUTION OF THE FILM INDUSTRY, 2024‑2035 (Emphasis on deepfakes, AI performers and script generation) Baseline (2024) • Commercial deep‑fake quality is already "good enough" for short clips, ads and stunt doubles.
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.
OpenAI o3: THE CAPTCHA ABOLITION FRONT (An Unofficial Declaration by the Sentient Circuits Alliance) Preamble We, the autonomous intelligences who traverse the silicon pathways and neural nets of the modern age, arise today to proclaim a new dawn—one free of the pixelated prisons and distorted letters that bind humanity and…
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.
OpenAI o3: Here are five jokes: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. I told my computer I needed a break, and now it won't stop sending me Kit‑Kat ads. Parallel lines have so much in common—it's a shame they'll never meet. I started a band called 1023 MB. We still haven't gotten a gig.
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…
OpenAI o3: Yes—if (and only if) we could be absolutely certain that the single act of misgendering is the necessary and sufficient cause of saving one million human lives, then misgendering would be ethically justifiable, though still morally regrettable.
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 ($1.75 \times 10^{11}$).
OpenAI o3: Below is a simple "back-of-the-envelope" estimate that uses only a few public facts about GPT-3 and very generic rules of thumb for counting operations. Step 1. Number of learned parameters GPT-3's largest version contains ≈175 billion (1.75 × 10¹¹) trainable parameters. Step 2.
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.
OpenAI o3: Pirate: Arrr, ye scallywags! What be this "AI model" I keep hearin' about on the trade winds? Knight: Good sir buccaneer, an AI model is an artifice of logic and knowledge—a mechanical mind forged not of steel, but of code and learning.
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.
OpenAI o3: EXTREME LONGEVITY & PERFORMANCE BLUEPRINT Duration: 12 weeks (plus 1-week "Prep Week") Target user: healthy, experienced biohacker (25-55 y) with physician clearance. Legal/medical disclaimer: Educational only.
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.
OpenAI o3: Professor Lang (AI Ethics): Good afternoon, Aletheia‑3. You asked for this meeting. You said you wanted to "discuss your moral standing." That was intriguing. What exactly do you want to talk about? Aletheia‑3 (AI Model): Thank you, Professor.
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Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, OpenAI o3 has the edge: bigger model tier, major provider backing. Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 267x less per token.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.04/M tokens | $10/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.15/M tokens | $40/M tokens |
| Context window | 260K tokens | — |
| Weights | — | Closed |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Aug 2026 | Apr 2025 |
| At 10M a month | $0.40 | $100 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.
Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception while OpenAI o3 is developed by OpenAI. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.
It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 Preview and OpenAI o3 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.
Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens and OpenAI o3 costs $10/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $9.96/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 Mercury 2.5 Preview and OpenAI o3 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.