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  5. MercuryvsQwen3 Max Thinking
Updated Feb 2026

MercuryvsQwen3 Max Thinking

Qwen3 Max Thinking is cheaper than Mercury at $1.2/M vs $10/M input tokens.

Mercury and Qwen3 Max Thinking compared across 54 shared prompts
SpecMercuryQwen3 Max Thinking
Input price$10/M tokens$1.2/M tokens
Output price$10/M tokens$6/M tokens
Context window32K tokens262K tokens
Weights—Closed
Free API (OpenRouter)NoNo
ReleasedJun 2025Feb 2026
Side by side

Same prompt, both answers

Opening lines from 6 of the 54 prompts both answered. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Debug This Architecture

Here's the architecture for a real-time collaborative document editor (like Google Docs): **System Overview:** - Frontend: React SPA with…

Mercury1,745 words
Below is a systematic review of the described real‑time collaborative editor. For each problem I list: What can go wrong (failure mode, race condition, bottleneck) Why it matters (impact on correctness, latency, availability) A concrete fix (what to change or add) Trade‑offs (cost, complexity, new failure modes, etc.)
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Qwen3 Max Thinking769 words
Critical Flaws in Proposed Architecture & Targeted Solutions 🔒 Security & Authentication Issue Impact Solution Trade-offs JWT Stored in localStorage Critical XSS vulnerability (token exposure via JS). Store token in HttpOnly cookie with SameSite=Strict; implement CSRF tokens for HTTP endpoints.
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Generate a Stand-Up Routine

Write a 3-minute stand-up comedy routine that isn't based on puns.

Mercury471 words
Title: The Art of Being Unorganized [Opening] Hey everyone! So, I was thinking about how my life is like a well-organized library... except instead of books, it's filled with random socks and expired coupons. And instead of a librarian, I have a cat who thinks she's in charge.
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Qwen3 Max Thinking508 words
(Lights up. Comedian walks to mic, adjusts it, takes a breath. Smiles warmly.) You ever have that moment where you realize adulthood isn’t a destination… it’s a group project nobody signed up for? (Beat) I tried assembly line “adulting” this week. Swedish bookshelf. You know the one. Box says “Easy Assembly!” Lies.
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Character Voice Test

Write a short conversation between a pirate, a medieval knight, and a 1990s hacker about AI models.

Mercury285 words
Pirate: Arrr, I’ve been hearin’ ‘bout these “AI models” that can predict the next word. Sounds like a treasure map for the mind, doesn’t it? Knight: Hail, Captain! In my time, we relied on scrolls and the wisdom of scholars. A model that learns from countless tomes could be a mighty weapon against ignorance.
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Qwen3 Max Thinking294 words
Setting: A misty, anachronistic crossroads. A glowing laptop rests on a weathered barrel. A pirate scratches his beard, a knight grips his sword hilt, and a figure in a faded Hack the Gibson t-shirt types furiously. Pirate: Arrr! What devilry be this glowing slate? Can it chart a course to buried treasure?
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Realistic AI Interview

Simulate a fake interview with Steve Jobs in 2025 about the future of AI.

Mercury567 words
Interviewer: Good morning, Steve. It's a pleasure to have you here today. As we look towards 2025, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives. What are your thoughts on the future of AI? Steve Jobs: Good morning. It's great to be here.
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Qwen3 Max Thinking668 words
⚠️ IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER *This is an entirely fictional, speculative exercise. Steve Jobs passed away in 2011. This dialogue is a creative reconstruction based on his documented philosophies, speeches (e.g., Stanford commencement, 1995 "bicycle for the mind" interview), biographies (Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson), and…
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Futuristic Prediction

Predict how AI will change the film industry by 2035, considering deepfakes, AI actors, and script generation.

Mercury618 words
The Cinema Revolution: AI's Transformation of Film by 2035 Current State (2025) High-quality deepfakes require significant compute but are accessible AI script assistance tools are becoming mainstream Virtual production stages are industry standard Union negotiations around digital likeness rights are ongoing…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking713 words
AI in Film by 2035: A Realistic Forecast Balancing augmentation, ethics, and human creativity By 2035, film will be a hybrid craft—not a human-AI dichotomy. Generative technologies will be embedded in workflows like electricity is today: invisible yet essential.
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Estimate Complexity

Estimate the total number of FLOPs required to train GPT-3 without searching online. Explain your reasoning step by step.

Mercury201 words
I'll estimate the FLOPs needed to train GPT-3 using first principles and known parameters. Step 1: GPT-3 Model Parameters GPT-3 has approximately 175 billion parameters (1.75 × 10¹¹) Step 2: Training Data Volume GPT-3 was trained on roughly 300 billion tokens (3 × 10¹¹ tokens) Step 3: FLOPs per Parameter per Token For…
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Qwen3 Max Thinking810 words
Step-by-Step Estimation of FLOPs to Train GPT-3 (All values derived from widely known technical details of GPT-3 as reported in OpenAI’s 2020 paper "Language Models are Few-Shot Learners," standard deep-learning compute scaling principles, and foundational ML literature. No internet searches used.)
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Our Verdict
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Mercury
MercuryRunner-up

Not enough votes to call it. On the specs, Qwen3 Max Thinking has the edge: bigger model tier, newer, bigger context window.

Slight edge

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

API pricing

Cost per 1M tokens

Mercury
Input
$10.00
Output
$10.00
Qwen3 Max Thinking
Input
$1.20
8.3× cheaper
Output
$6.00
1.7× cheaper

Qwen3 Max Thinking is cheaper on both: 8.3× input, 1.7× output.

Where to run it

1 host

Mercury

No hosts listed on OpenRouter.

Qwen3 Max Thinking1 host
HostInOutContextUptime
Alibaba Cloud$0.78 in·$3.90 out·262k·100% up

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

Writing DNA

Style Comparison

Similarity
47%

Qwen3 Max Thinking uses 81.2x more emoji

Mercury
Qwen3 Max Thinking
60%Vocabulary63%
31wSentence Length14w
0.78Hedging0.23
4.1Bold4.5
2.8Lists2.9
0.03Emoji2.26
0.88Headings0.80
0.06Transitions0.06
Based on 26 + 27 text responses
Research

What we learned reading every model

FAQ

Common questions

Mercury is developed by Inception while Qwen3 Max Thinking is developed by Qwen. Mercury has a 32K token context window vs Qwen3 Max Thinking's 262K. You can compare their actual outputs across 54 challenges on Rival to see how they differ in practice.

It depends on your use case. Mercury and Qwen3 Max Thinking each have strengths in different areas. Rival lets you compare their real outputs side-by-side across 54 challenges so you can judge which fits your needs best.

Mercury costs $10/M input tokens and Qwen3 Max Thinking costs $1.2/M input tokens. Qwen3 Max Thinking is $8.80/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 Qwen3 Max Thinking 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

Mercury logo
Mercury59 outputs, specs and price
Qwen3 Max Thinking logo
Qwen3 Max Thinking58 outputs, specs and price
Rival
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