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 2.5vsQwen3 Coder
Updated Sep 2026

Mercury 2.5vsQwen3 Coder

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Qwen3 Coder at $0.04/M vs $0.22/M input tokens.

Mercury 2.5 and Qwen3 Coder compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecMercury 2.5Qwen3 Coder
Input price$0.04/M tokens$0.22/M tokens
Output price$0.15/M tokens$0.95/M tokens
Context window260K tokens—
Weights—Open
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedSep 2026Jul 2025
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

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

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.
Read the full answer
Qwen3 Coder581 words
30-Day Health & Longevity Starter Plan Week 1: Foundation Building Diet 🥗 Hydration first: Drink 8 glasses of water daily (start your day with 2 glasses) Add, don't subtract: Include one extra serving of vegetables at dinner Smart swaps: Replace one sugary drink with water or herbal tea Mindful eating: Eat one meal…
Read the full answer

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.
Read the full answer
Qwen3 Coder627 words
For the Experienced Software Engineer Think of this as a massive distributed caching problem scaled to an extreme degree. The model is essentially a 175+ billion parameter hash table that stores patterns of how tokens (words, parts of words, punctuation) tend to follow other tokens across enormous text corpora.
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
Qwen3 Coder569 words
HarborTech Services (HTS) – 5-Year LBO Summary 1) Year-by-Year Cash Flow Table (FY2026 – FY2030) Assumptions Recap: Revenue growth: 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 5% EBITDA margin: 14.0%, 15.0%, 16.0%, 16.5%, 17.0% Capex = 3.0% of revenue ΔNWC = 0.5% of revenue growth Tax = 25% × (EBITDA - Cash Interest) Debt: Term Loan: 4.0x EBITDA…
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
Qwen3 Coder751 words
48-Hour Crisis Action Plan Hours 1-6: Immediate Response Team Assembly Action: Convene emergency leadership team (Medical Affairs, Legal, Regulatory, PR, Compliance, Finance heads) Reasoning: Need comprehensive expertise to assess situation properly before board meeting Key tasks: Legal team prepares preliminary…
Read the full answer

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
Qwen3 Coder850 words
The 1920 Transistor: A Counterfactual Analysis (1920-1980) Immediate Technological Cascade (1920s-1930s) Radio Revolution: The transistor would initially be seen as a "better vacuum tube" rather than a revolutionary component.
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
Qwen3 Coder621 words
"Tidal Convergence" A Multi-Layered Exploration of Oceanic Depth Conceptual Narrative This dish represents the moment where ocean currents converge, bringing together disparate marine ecosystems in a single, harmonious expression.
Read the full answer
Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
Qwen3 Coder
Qwen3 Coder

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

Mercury 2.5 costs 6.3x 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
5.5× cheaper
Output
$0.15
6.3× cheaper
Qwen3 Coder
Input
$0.22
Output
$0.95

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 5.5× input, 6.3× output.

Where to run it

6 hosts, cheapest first

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up
Qwen3 Coder5 hosts
HostInOutContextUptime
Google Vertex AI$0.22 in·$1.80 out·262k·99.9% upNNovitafp8$0.38 in·$1.55 out·262k·96.5% upAlibaba Cloud$0.97 in·$4.88 out·262k·100% upDDeepInfrafp4degraded$0.30 in·$1.00 out·262k·96.3% upVVenicefp8degraded$0.35 in·$1.50 out·256k·88.4% 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 Qwen3 Coder is developed by Qwen. 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 Qwen3 Coder 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 Qwen3 Coder costs $0.22/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $0.18/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 Qwen3 Coder 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
Qwen3 Coder logoSolar Pro 4 logo
Qwen3 Coder vs Solar Pro 4Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoHy3 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Hy3Landed Sep 2026
Qwen3 Coder logoQwen3.7 Flash logo
Qwen3 Coder vs Qwen3.7 FlashLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoLing 3.0 Flash logo
Mercury 2.5 vs Ling 3.0 FlashLanded Sep 2026
Qwen3 Coder logoMuse Glimmer 30B logo
Qwen3 Coder vs Muse Glimmer 30BLanded Sep 2026
Mercury 2.5 logoGLM 5.3 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs GLM 5.3Landed Sep 2026
Qwen3 Coder logoTernary Bonsai 2 27B logo
Qwen3 Coder 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
Qwen3 Coder logoQwen3.8 Flash logo
Qwen3 Coder vs Qwen3.8 FlashSame lab
Qwen3 Coder logoQwen3.8 Max (0902) logo
Qwen3 Coder vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)Same lab
Mercury 2.5 logoDeepSeek V4 Flash logo
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 FlashSame size
Mercury 2.5 logoDeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731Same size
Mercury 2.5 logoDeepSeek V4 Pro logo
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 ProNew provider
Mercury 2.5 logoDeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 logo
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813New provider

Model pages

Mercury 2.5 logo
Mercury 2.520 outputs, specs and price
Qwen3 Coder logo
Qwen3 Coder59 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