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  5. Mercury 2.5vsMistral Large 2
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5vsMistral Large 2

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Mistral Large 2 at $0.04/M vs $8/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 and Mistral Large 2 compared across 17 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5Mistral Large 2
Input price$0.04/M tokens$8/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$24/M tokens
Context window260K tokens128K tokens
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Jul 2024
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 17 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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Mistral Large 2344 words
Here’s a simple, delicious, and creative savory dish using just 7 common pantry ingredients—no fresh produce required! "Golden Crispy Chickpea & Tomato Skillet" A warm, spiced, and satisfying one-pan dish with crispy chickpeas, tangy tomatoes, and a hint of smoky sweetness. Perfect as a side, snack, or light meal!
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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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Mistral Large 21,223 words
1. For the Experienced Software Engineer (Skeptical, Systems-Minded, Non-ML Background) You’re right to be skeptical—"predicting the next word" sounds trivial, like autocomplete on steroids. But the magic isn’t in the prediction itself; it’s in the scale and architecture of how that prediction is trained.
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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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Mistral Large 22,069 words
The invention of the transistor in 1920—nearly three decades earlier than its actual debut in 1947—would have triggered a cascade of technological, economic, and geopolitical shifts with profound second- and third-order effects. Below is a detailed exploration of these implications through 1980, structured by domain.
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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.
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Mistral Large 21,368 words
Michelin 3-Star Dish: "Ocean’s Whisper & Forest’s Breath" Conceptual Narrative: This dish is a poetic dialogue between two seemingly disparate ecosystems—the ocean’s depths and the forest floor—united through texture, temperature, and memory.
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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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Mistral Large 21,566 words
Ultimate 3-Month Longevity & Biohacking Optimization Plan Designed for a high-performance biohacker seeking to maximize lifespan, cognitive function, physical performance, and metabolic resilience.
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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 2.5501 words
Here is an analysis of the contract clauses that pose significant risk to the contractor, along with suggested modifications and legal reasoning. Scope and Compensation (Clause 1) Risk: The client can expand the project indefinitely without paying extra.
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Mistral Large 22,489 words
This contract is heavily one-sided in favor of the Client (TechCorp Solutions Inc.) and contains multiple clauses that could be exploited, abused, or create unreasonable legal and financial risks for the Contractor.
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Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
Mistral Large 2
Mistral Large 2Runner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Mercury 2.5 has the edge: newer, bigger context window.

Mercury 2.5 costs 160x 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
200× cheaper
Output
$0.15
160× cheaper
Mistral Large 2
Input
$8.00
Output
$24.00

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 200× input, 160× output.

Where to run it

2 hosts

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up
Mistral Large 21 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Mistral$2.00 in·$6.00 out·131k·97.7% 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 Mistral Large 2 is developed by Mistral AI. Mercury 2.5 has a 260K token context window vs Mistral Large 2's 128K. You can compare their actual outputs across 17 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 and Mistral Large 2 each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 17 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens and Mistral Large 2 costs $8/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $7.96/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 and Mistral Large 2 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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Model pages

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