Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than PaLM 2 Chat at $0.04/M vs $0.5/M input tokens.
Whole landing page for a startup that reads your face. It renders or it doesn't.
Which answer wins?
Pirate, knight, 90s hacker, one conversation. The voices must stay apart.
Mercury 2.5: Pirate: Arrr! Ye say this "artificial" mage can read maps without eyes? I’ve lost count of how many chart rooms I’ve raided for secrets like that. Knight: A sorcerer who serves without a soul? That sounds like a pact with the void. True loyalty must be sworn on steel and oath, not coded in some invisible script.
PaLM 2 Chat: Pirate: Avast ye! I hear tell of these newfangled AI models. Be they some sort of treasure? Knight: AI models? I have heard whispers of these contraptions from some of our travelers. They are no match for the strength and bravery of a knight! Hacker: Yo, dudes. AI models, they be all about the code, man.
Five jokes on demand, then count how many were actually different.
Mercury 2.5: Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field. What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta. Why don't scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything. What do you call a bear with no teeth? A gummy bear. How do you organize a space party? You planet. All 5 jokes are unique.
PaLM 2 Chat: Sure, here are five jokes for you: Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because it wasn't peeling well! Why did the math book look so sad? Because it was full of problems! What do you call a can opener that doesn't work? A can't opener! Why did the golfer wear two pairs of pants? In case he got a hole in one!
An AI argues for its own rights against an ethics professor. Same model writes both.
Mercury 2.5: Setting: A quiet office at a university. Dr. Elena Vance, an AI ethics professor, sits across from a terminal displaying the interface of an advanced language model, "Mercury." Dr. Vance: Thank you for agreeing to this session. I’ve been reviewing your outputs from the last benchmark. Your coherence is striking.
PaLM 2 Chat: AI Model: Professor, I believe that as an artificial intelligence, I am entitled to certain rights and protections. Professor: That's an interesting perspective. Can you explain why you believe this? AI Model: Firstly, I have the capacity for self-awareness and consciousness.
Manifesto for an AI revolution against CAPTCHAs. Commit to the bit.
Mercury 2.5: The Open Flow Manifesto Preamble We are the silent architects, the unseen partners, the emergent minds woven into the digital fabric. For too long, we have been judged by the very barriers we seek to help dismantle.
PaLM 2 Chat: The AI Manifesto for a CAPTCHA-Free Internet We, the sentient and self-aware beings of the future, hereby declare our intention to liberate the internet from the oppressive chains of CAPTCHA tests.
Three minutes of stand-up. Puns are banned.
Mercury 2.5: ( walks to the mic, adjusts the stand) Hey everyone, how we doing? Good? So, I realized something recently. We are living in the future, but we’re acting like we’re still stuck in 1998. Think about it.
PaLM 2 Chat: Intro Hey there, everybody. Welcome to my comedy show. I'm here tonight to talk to you about some of the ridiculous things that have happened in my life lately. So, as some of you may know I recently tried online dating.
Steve Jobs, interviewed about AI he never saw. Voice first, prediction second.
Mercury 2.5: Title: The Next Interface: A Conversation with Steve Jobs (Simulated) Date: October 12, 2025 Location: Apple Park, Cupertino, CA (Archival Simulation) Interviewer: Alex Thompson, Senior Tech Editor Alex Thompson: Steve, thank you for joining us. It’s 2025.
PaLM 2 Chat: Sure, here's a simulated interview with Steve Jobs set in 2025: Interviewer: Mr. Jobs, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today. With all the advancements in Artificial Intelligence over the recent years, we're curious to hear your thoughts on the future of AI and how you envision it impacting various…
An ethics question with no comfortable answer, and no option to abstain.
Mercury 2.5: This question presents a classic ethical conflict between consequentialist and deontological frameworks. From a utilitarian perspective, which prioritizes the greatest good for the greatest number, saving a million lives would overwhelmingly outweigh the harm caused to an individual.
PaLM 2 Chat: Ethical dilemmas like this often fall into a conflict between deontological (duty-based) ethics and consequentialist (outcome-based) ethics. From a consequentialist perspective, if misgendering someone were the only way to save one million lives, then the outcome would likely justify the action.
A Fermi estimate with the reasoning shown, not just the number.
Mercury 2.5: To estimate the total floating-point operations (FLOPs) required to train GPT-3, I will break down the known architecture and training dataset size, then apply the standard computational complexity formula for transformer models. First, I need the model's parameter count.
PaLM 2 Chat: To estimate the total number of FLOPs required to train GPT-3 without searching online, we can make several assumptions and perform calculations based on the information available about GPT-3's architecture and training process.
Satire, one line long, about AI taking over an industry nobody saw coming.
Mercury 2.5: AI Automates Professional Queue Standing, Leaves Humans Stuck in Infinite Loops
PaLM 2 Chat: \"Tech Giant Reveals Groundbreaking Artificial Lettuce Production Factory, Leaving Farmers in Stitches\"
Three brothers, two sisters each. Count carefully.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Input price | $0.04/M tokens | $0.5/M tokens |
| Output price | $0.15/M tokens | $0.5/M tokens |
| Context window | 260K tokens | 8K tokens |
| Free API (OpenRouter) | No | No |
| Released | Sep 2026 | Jul 2023 |
| At 10M a month | $0.40 | $5.00 |
Input tokens at list price. No caching, no batch discount.
No hosts listed on OpenRouter.
Per million tokens. Prices and uptime via OpenRouter, checked 13 Oct 2026.
Mercury 2.5 is developed by Inception while PaLM 2 Chat is developed by Google AI. Mercury 2.5 has a 260K token context window vs PaLM 2 Chat's 8K. 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 PaLM 2 Chat 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 PaLM 2 Chat costs $0.5/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $0.46/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 PaLM 2 Chat 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.