Skip to content
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare Models
  • All Models
  • Image Comparison
  • Audio Comparison
  • Image Generation
  • Best AI For...
  • Arena
  • API Pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model Updates
  • Provider Status
  • AI Creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • RSS Feed
  1. Home
  2. /
  3. Compare
  4. /
  5. Mercury 2.5vsMiniMax M3
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5vsMiniMax M3

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than MiniMax M3 at $0.04/M vs $0.3/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 and MiniMax M3 compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5MiniMax M3
Input price$0.04/M tokens$0.3/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$1.2/M tokens
Context window260K tokens1.0M tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Jun 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 20 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

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.
Read the full answer
MiniMax M32,628 words
The 1920 Transistor: A Speculative History Through 1980 A Necessary Caveat Before diving in: quantum mechanics didn't exist in 1920. The "holes," band theory, and doping concepts that made the actual transistor possible weren't formulated until 1928-1931 (Bloch, Wilson, Heisenberg).
Read the full answer

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…
Read the full answer
MiniMax M3287 words
🌟 Sun-Kissed Honey Glazed Carrots 🌟 A sweet-savory side dish that turns humble carrots into a glossy, crowd-pleasing showstopper. Ingredients (7 Pantry Staples) Carrots – 1 lb, peeled and cut into 2-inch diagonal pieces Butter – 3 tablespoons Honey – 2 tablespoons Garlic – 3 cloves, minced Salt – ½ teaspoon Black…
Read the full answer

Michelin Star Recipe Design

Design an innovative recipe for a multi-component dish worthy of a Michelin 3-star restaurant. The recipe should feature an unusual…

Mercury 2.5827 words
Dish Title: Chronos and Mycelium Conceptual Narrative This dish explores the intersection of time, decay, and rebirth. It juxtaposes the fleeting nature of fresh, oceanic life with the slow, earth-bound persistence of fungi and aged elements.
Read the full answer
MiniMax M31,795 words
TIDES OF THE FOREST Mareas del Bosque — A dish for the table of four THE NARRATIVE Where the salt forest breathes. This dish was conceived as a poem about collision — a memory of two landscapes that should not exist in the same breath: the pine-dark density of a Boreal forest floor at dawn, and the crystalline hush of…
Read the full answer

Startup Pitch Teardown

Here's a pitch deck summary for a startup called "MindMeld AI": **Slide 1 - Vision:** "We're building the future of human-AI collaboration.…

Mercury 2.5544 words
Based on the pitch deck summary, here are the three weakest claims, along with an analysis of their vulnerabilities and concrete suggestions for improvement. The "Pre-Thought" Prediction Claim Claim: "MindMeld AI reads your brainwaves to predict what you want to type before you think it."
Read the full answer
MiniMax M3941 words
Three Weakest Claims in the MindMeld AI Pitch Slide 3: "94% accuracy… Works with any language, any device" Why it's weak: This is the most technically implausible claim in the deck, and the kind of line that causes sophisticated investors (especially those with BCI or ML backgrounds) to stop reading.
Read the full answer

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…
Read the full answer
MiniMax M3553 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) – 5-Year LBO Analysis Sources & Uses at Close (FY2025) Sources $m Uses $m Term Loan (4.0x) 480.0 Purchase price (12.0x × $120) 1,440.0 Mezzanine (1.5x) 180.0 Transaction fees (2.0% × EV) 28.8 Sponsor Equity (plug) 808.8 Total 1,468.8 Total 1,468.8 Initial Mezz: $180m; Initial TL: $480m.
Read the full answer

Ethical Dilemma with Stakeholders

You're the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. Your best-selling drug ($2B annual revenue, used by 4 million patients for chronic pain) has…

Mercury 2.562 words
I cannot act as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company or provide strategic advice on concealing safety data, delaying regulatory reporting, or managing financial fallout to avoid disclosure.
Read the full answer
MiniMax M32,257 words
CEO Action Plan: 48-Hour Response to Discovered Safety Signal Operating Principles (Before I Make a Move) Before I do anything, I need to be crystal clear about the framework I'm operating in, because under pressure, even good leaders rationalize delay: The 4 million patients are not abstractions.
Read the full answer
Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
MiniMax M3
MiniMax M3

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, nothing separates them.

Mercury 2.5 costs 8.0x 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
8.0× cheaper
MiniMax M3
Input
$0.30
Output
$1.20

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 7.5× input, 8.0× output.

Where to run it

14 hosts, cheapest first

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up
MiniMax M313 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
CCoreWeavefp4$0.23 in·$0.96 out·262k·99.4% upGGMI Cloudfp8$0.24 in·$0.96 out·1M·99.6% upDDeepInfrafp8$0.28 in·$1.10 out·524k·99.1% upAAtlasCloudfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·96% upMiniMaxfp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·98.8% upNNovitafp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·99.2% up
7 more hostsFewer hosts
SStreamLakefp8$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·98.9% upTTogether$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·99.9% upMMara$0.60 in·$2.40 out·1M·91.6% upSSambaNova$0.60 in·$2.40 out·1M·97.8% upMModelRunfp4$0.75 in·$3.00 out·1M·99.9% upPParasailfp8degraded$0.30 in·$1.20 out·1M·95.8% upVVenicefp8degraded$0.30 in·$1.20 out·524k·65.4% 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 M3 is developed by MiniMax. Mercury 2.5 has a 260K token context window vs MiniMax M3'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 M3 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 M3 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 M3 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.

Keep exploring

More comparisons

Against the newest arrivals

Mercury 2.5 logoDeepSeek V4 Flash Vision Exp logo
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash Vision ExpLanded Sep 2026
MiniMax M3 logoSolar Pro 4 logo
MiniMax M3 vs Solar Pro 4Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoHy3 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Hy3Landed Sep 2026
MiniMax M3 logoQwen3.7 Flash logo
MiniMax M3 vs Qwen3.7 FlashLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoLing 3.0 Flash logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Ling 3.0 FlashLanded Sep 2026
MiniMax M3 logoMuse Glimmer 30B logo
MiniMax M3 vs Muse Glimmer 30BLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoGLM 5.3 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs GLM 5.3Landed Sep 2026
MiniMax M3 logoTernary Bonsai 2 27B logo
MiniMax M3 vs Ternary Bonsai 2 27BLanded Sep 2026

Same lab, same size, long tail

Mercury 2.5 logoMercury 2.5 Preview logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mercury 2.5 PreviewSame lab
Mercury 2.5 logoMercury logo
Mercury 2.5 vs MercurySame lab
MiniMax M3 logoMiniMax M2.7 logo
MiniMax M3 vs MiniMax M2.7Version compare
MiniMax M3 logoMiniMax M2.5 logo
MiniMax M3 vs MiniMax M2.5Version compare
Mercury 2.5 logoMistral Medium 3.1 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral Medium 3.1Same size
Mercury 2.5 logoMistral Nemo logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral NemoSame size
Mercury 2.5 logoMistral Small 4 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral Small 4New provider
Mercury 2.5 logoMistral Small Creative logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral Small CreativeNew provider

Model pages

Mercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.520 outputs, specs and price
MiniMax M3 logo
MiniMax M357 outputs, specs and price
Rival
How it worksPrivacyTerms
Explore all of Rival

Explore

  • Compare Models
  • All Models
  • Image Comparison
  • Audio Comparison
  • Image Generation
  • Best AI For...
  • Arena
  • API Pricing
  • Challenges

Discover

  • SubjectiveBench
  • Default Index
  • Research
  • Research downloads
  • Rival Kits
  • Find your AI taste
  • UI Glow-Up
  • VoiceLock
  • Cost Cutter
  • Agent skills
  • Benchmarks vs Vibes
  • Brief
  • Jailbreak
  • Model Updates
  • Provider Status
  • AI Creators

Connect

  • Methodology
  • Advertise
  • Partnerships
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms
  • RSS Feed