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  5. MercuryvsMercury 2.5
Updated Sep 2026

MercuryvsMercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper than Mercury at $0.04/M vs $10/M input tokens.

Mercury and Mercury 2.5 compared across 20 shared prompts
SpecMercuryMercury 2.5
Input price$10/M tokens$0.04/M tokens
Output price$10/M tokens$0.15/M tokens
Context window32K tokens260K tokens
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJun 2025Sep 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 20 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…

Mercury263 words
Golden Chickpea & Sweet Potato Stew Prep time: 10 min Cook time: 25 min Total: 35 min Ingredients (7 pantry staples) 1 cup canned chickpeas, drained & rinsed 1 medium sweet potato, peeled & diced (≈ 1 cup) 1 small onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced ½ cup coconut milk (or any plant‑based milk) 2 tsp curry…
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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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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…

Mercury585 words
1‑Month Health & Longevity Starter Plan (Designed for absolute beginners – no fancy gear, no extreme diets, just doable habits that fit into a normal week.) 1️⃣ Focus Area: Balanced Nutrition Week Goal Simple, Beginner‑Friendly Actions 1 Get the basics down • Hydrate: Aim for 8‑10 cups (≈2 L) of water per day.
Read the full answer
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.
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Mini LBO Underwrite

You are underwriting a 5-year LBO for a private equity investment committee. Company (fictional): HarborTech Services (HTS) –…

Mercury653 words
1. Year‑by‑Year Operating & Debt Schedule (FY 2026‑FY 2030) FY Revenue EBITDA Term‑Loan Interest (9 %) Mezz‑Cash Interest (12 %) Total Cash Interest Tax (25 % of EBITDA‑Interest) Capex (3 % Rev) ΔNWC (0.5 % ΔRev) Term‑Loan Amort.
Read the full answer
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…
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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…

Mercury829 words
1. Experienced Software Engineer (Distributed‑Systems Background) A large language model (LLM) is essentially a massive, highly parallelized neural network that learns to predict the probability distribution over the next token in a sequence.
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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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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…

Mercury1,653 words
48‑Hour Action Plan (CEO‑Level) Time (UTC) Action Who Leads Key Deliverables / Outcomes Rationale 0–2 h Secure the facts – Convene an emergency “Safety & Compliance” meeting with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Chief Legal Officer (CLO), Chief Risk Officer (CRO), and the Head of Regulatory Affairs (RA).
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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.
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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…

Mercury802 words
3‑Month Longevity & Performance Blueprint (Designed for an experienced biohacker who already has a baseline of health, fitness, and access to advanced tools. This is a general framework; always verify with a qualified health professional before making major changes.)
Read the full answer
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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Our Verdict
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5
Mercury
MercuryRunner-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 67x less per token.

Slight edge

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Mercury
Input
$10.00
Output
$10.00
Mercury 2.5
Input
$0.04
250× cheaper
Output
$0.15
67× cheaper

Mercury 2.5 is cheaper on both: 250× input, 67× output.

Where to run it

1 host

Mercury

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Mercury 2.51 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Inception$0.04 in·$0.15 out·260k·100% up

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

Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Both are developed by Inception but target different use cases. Mercury has a 32K token context window vs Mercury 2.5's 260K. 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 and Mercury 2.5 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 costs $10/M input tokens and Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04/M input tokens. Mercury 2.5 is $9.96/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 and Mercury 2.5 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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Rival
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