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  5. Mercury 2.5vsOpenAI o4-mini
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5vsOpenAI o4-mini

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than OpenAI o4-mini at $0.04/M vs $1.1/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 and OpenAI o4-mini compared across 3 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5OpenAI o4-mini
Input price$0.04/M tokens$1.1/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$4.4/M tokens
Context window260K tokens—
Weights—Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Apr 2025
Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
OpenAI o4-mini
OpenAI o4-miniRunner-up

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

Mercury 2.5 costs 29x less per token.

Too close to call
API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
28× cheaper
Output
$0.15
29× cheaper
OpenAI o4-mini
Input
$1.10
Output
$4.40

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 28× input, 29× output.

Where to run it

2 hosts

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up
OpenAI o4-mini1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
OpenAI$1.10 in·$4.40 out·200k·100% up

Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 22 Sep 2026.

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception while OpenAI o4-mini is developed by OpenAI. You can compare their actual outputs across 3 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2.5 and OpenAI o4-mini each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 3 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens and OpenAI o4-mini costs $1.1/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $1.06/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 OpenAI o4-mini 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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