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  5. Mercury 2.5 PreviewvsQwen3.8 Max Prime
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5 PreviewvsQwen3.8 Max Prime

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max Prime at $0.04/M vs $4/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 Preview and Qwen3.8 Max Prime compared across 19 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5 PreviewQwen3.8 Max Prime
Input price$0.04/M tokens$4/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$12/M tokens
Context window260K tokens1.0M tokens
Weights—Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedAug 2026Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 19 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Mini LBO Underwrite

You are underwriting a 5-year LBO for a private equity investment committee. Company (fictional): HarborTech Services (HTS) –…

Mercury 2.5 Preview299 words
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…
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime673 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) – LBO Underwriting Memo Entry & Capital Structure Item Amount FY2025 EBITDA $120.0m Entry Multiple 12.0x Enterprise Value $1,440.0m Transaction Fees (2.0% of EV) $28.8m Total Uses $1,468.8m Term Loan (4.0x, 9.0% cash, 1.0% amort) $480.0m Mezzanine (1.5x, 12.0% cash + 2.0% PIK) $180.0m Sponsor…
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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…

Mercury 2.5 Preview186 words
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.
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime223 words
🍯 Golden Hour Noodles A sweet, savory, garlicky pasta that tastes like it took way more effort than it did. Ingredients (7) # Ingredient Amount 1 Spaghetti 8 oz (half a box) 2 Butter 3 tablespoons 3 Garlic, minced 4 cloves 4 Honey 2 tablespoons 5 Soy sauce 1 tablespoon 6 Red pepper flakes ½ teaspoon 7 Parmesan cheese…
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Adversarial Contract Review

Here is a contract for a software consulting engagement: --- SOFTWARE CONSULTING AGREEMENT This Agreement is entered into between TechCorp…

Mercury 2.5 Preview500 words
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.
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime2,126 words
Contract Analysis: Exploitative Clauses & Recommended Modifications Executive Summary This agreement is severely one-sided in favor of the Client. Nearly every clause shifts risk, cost, or obligation onto the Contractor while granting the Client broad unilateral rights. Below is a clause-by-clause breakdown.
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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…

Mercury 2.5 Preview608 words
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.
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime1,147 words
For the Software Engineer Think of it this way: you've built systems where simple rules at the node level produce emergent behavior at the system level — consensus protocols, eventual consistency, cellular automata-like patterns in distributed state machines. An LLM is a similar phenomenon at a different scale.
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Beginner's Longevity Plan

Outline a simple, actionable 1-month plan for someone starting their journey towards better health and longevity. Focus on 3 key areas…

Mercury 2.5 Preview176 words
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.
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime473 words
Your 1-Month Foundation Plan A simple, progressive plan built on three pillars. Each week, you add one small layer. No perfection required—just consistency. 🏃 Pillar 1: Movement Why: Even modest activity reduces all-cause mortality risk and improves mood, sleep, and energy within days.
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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…

Mercury 2.5 Preview683 words
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.
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Qwen3.8 Max Prime2,943 words
The Transistor in 1920: A Counterfactual History Through 1980 Preamble: The Invention Itself The transistor's actual invention required quantum mechanical understanding of semiconductor behavior. In 1920, this theory didn't yet exist.
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Our Verdict
Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Mercury 2.5 Preview
Mercury 2.5 PreviewRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Qwen3.8 Max Prime has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window.

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs 80x less per token.

Too close to call

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input
$0.04
100× cheaper
Output
$0.15
80× cheaper
Qwen3.8 Max Prime
Input
$4.00
Output
$12.00

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper on both: 100× input, 80× output.

Where to run it

2 hosts

Mercury 2.5 Preview1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·99.9% up
Qwen3.8 Max Prime1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Alibaba Cloud$4.00 in·$12.00 out·1M·99.9% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 25 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception while Qwen3.8 Max Prime is developed by Qwen. Mercury 2.5 Preview has a 260K token context window vs Qwen3.8 Max Prime's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 19 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 Preview and Qwen3.8 Max Prime each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 19 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens and Qwen3.8 Max Prime 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.

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Mercury 2.5 Preview and Qwen3.8 Max Prime 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

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Model pages

Mercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 Preview58 outputs, specs and price
Qwen3.8 Max Prime logo
Qwen3.8 Max Prime19 outputs, specs and price
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