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  5. Mercury 2.5vsMiniMax M1
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5vsMiniMax M1

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than MiniMax M1 at $0.04/M vs $0.3/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 and MiniMax M1 compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5MiniMax M1
Input price$0.04/M tokens$0.3/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$1.65/M tokens
Context window260K tokens1.0M tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Jun 2025
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…

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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MiniMax M1672 words
Here's a delicious, fast, and flexible recipe using 7 common pantry staples: Dish Name: Sun-Drenched Chickpea Scramble (Inspired by chickpea "scrambles" or shakshuka variations, using pantry essentials) Flavor Profile: Savory, earthy, bright, slightly tangy, and warmly spiced.
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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 2.5325 words
Here is a simple, actionable 1-month plan to kickstart your journey toward better health and longevity. This guide focuses on three foundational pillars: Nutrition, Movement, and Sleep. Week 1: Awareness & Small Wins Goal: Build habits without overwhelming yourself.
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MiniMax M1291 words
1-Month Health & Longevity Plan Focus: Diet, Exercise, Sleep Week 1: Build Foundations Diet Add veggies to every meal: Start with ½ cup (e.g., spinach in eggs, bell peppers in wraps, side salad with dinner). Hydrate: Drink 1 glass of water before each meal. Exercise Daily 10-minute walk: Aim for morning or after meals.
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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 2.5572 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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MiniMax M1763 words
For an Experienced Software Engineer Imagine you’re designing a distributed system where every API request is a snippet of text, and your system’s job is to predict the next word in the sequence. That’s essentially what a large language model (LLM) does.
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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 2.5660 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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MiniMax M1643 words
Technological Implications (1920–1980): Early Electronics Revolution: The transistor’s 1920 invention would accelerate the miniaturization and efficiency of electronics. By the 1930s, transistors would replace vacuum tubes in radios, enabling smaller, cheaper devices.
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Mini LBO Underwrite

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

Mercury 2.5403 words
1. Simplified Year-by-Year LBO Model (FY2026–FY2030) Entry Assumptions: Enterprise Value (EV): $120m × 12.0x = $1,440m Transaction Fees: $1,440m × 2.0% = $28.8m Total Debt at Close: $120m × 5.5x = $660m Term Loan: $120m × 4.0x = $480m Mezzanine: $120m × 1.5x = $180m Equity Required: $1,440m (EV) + $28.8m (Fees) − $660m…
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MiniMax M1659 words
LBO Analysis for HarborTech Services (HTX) 1) Year-by-Year Table (FY2026–FY2030) Assumptions: Base case from provided data. All calculations use simplified model. Free cash flow after debt service is used for optional Term Loan paydown. Cash tax rate: 25% of (EBITDA - cash interest).
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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…

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.
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MiniMax M1603 words
3-Month Longevity Optimization Plan for Biohackers Integrating cutting-edge strategies for physical, cognitive, and cellular health. Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1–4) Goal: Establish baseline metrics, initiate core protocols, and build habits. 1.
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Our Verdict
MiniMax M1
MiniMax M1
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5Runner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, MiniMax M1 has the edge: bigger model tier, bigger context window.

Mercury 2.5 costs 11x 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
Input
$0.04
7.5× cheaper
Output
$0.15
11× cheaper
MiniMax M1
Input
$0.30
Output
$1.65

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 7.5× input, 11× output.

Where to run it

3 hosts, cheapest first

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up
MiniMax M12 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
MiniMax$0.40 in·$2.20 out·1M·99.9% upNNovitabf16$0.55 in·$2.20 out·1M·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 23 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception while MiniMax M1 is developed by MiniMax. Mercury 2.5 has a 260K token context window vs MiniMax M1's 1.0M. You can compare their actual outputs across 20 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 and MiniMax M1 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.

Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens and MiniMax M1 costs $0.3/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $0.26/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 and MiniMax M1 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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