What is the difference between Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Both are developed by Inception but target different use cases. Mercury 2 has a 128K token context window vs Mercury 2.5 Preview's 260K. You can compare their actual outputs across 53 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

Which is better, Mercury 2 or Mercury 2.5 Preview?

It depends on your use case. Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 Preview each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 53 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

How much does Mercury 2 cost compared to Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.21/M cheaper per input. Check their side-by-side outputs on Rival to see if the price difference is justified by quality.

How can I compare Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 Preview on Rival?

This page shows a side-by-side comparison of Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 Preview 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.

Updated Aug 2026

Mercury 2vsMercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper than Mercury 2 at $0.04/M vs $0.25/M input tokens.

Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 Preview compared across 53 shared prompts
Spec	Mercury 2	Mercury 2.5 Preview
Input price	$0.25/M tokens	$0.04/M tokens
Output price	$0.75/M tokens	$0.15/M tokens
Context window	128K tokens	260K tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)	No	No
Released	Mar 2026	Aug 2026