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
  • 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
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
  • 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. Models
  3. Mercury 2
Updated Mar 5, 2026
Share
Loading...
Openings

How Mercury 2 starts an answer

The first lines of 5 of its 23 written answers. Formatting stripped, words untouched.

Historical Counterfactual Analysis

If the transistor had been invented in 1920 instead of 1947, trace the likely technological, economic, and geopolitical implications through…

2,965 words
Executive summary If a practical point‑contact transistor had been demonstrated in 1920 (instead of 1947) the whole post‑World‑War‑II technological trajectory would have been compressed by roughly 15‑20 years.
Read the full answer

Adversarial Contract Review

Here is a contract for a software consulting engagement: --- SOFTWARE CONSULTING AGREEMENT This Agreement is entered into between TechCorp…

2,132 words
Below is a clause‑by‑clause risk‑assessment of the sample “Software Consulting Agreement” together with practical revision language that a contractor (or the contractor’s counsel) could propose. The analysis is framed as general information about typical U.S.
Read the full answer

Advanced Longevity Plan (Biohacker)

Develop a comprehensive, cutting-edge 3-month longevity plan for a biohacker aiming to optimize longevity, physical and cognitive…

2,100 words
3‑Month “Longevity‑Optimization” Blueprint for the Advanced Bio‑Hacker (All recommendations are research‑backed, but not a substitute for professional medical advice. Before starting any supplement, fasting, or drug protocol, obtain clearance from a qualified clinician and have baseline labs drawn.)
Read the full answer

Debug This Architecture

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

2,072 words
Below is a structured “failure‑mode → mitigation” map for the architecture you described. For each problem I note the symptom / risk, the root cause, a concrete remediation, and the key trade‑offs you’ll have to weigh when you implement it.
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…

1,934 words
Goal: Protect patients, meet legal/ethical obligations, preserve the company’s long‑term credibility, and manage the immediate financial and reputational fallout. Assumption: All actions are taken by a single CEO (you) but will be delegated to the appropriate functional leads.
Read the full answer

Compare Mercury 2

Mercury 2 vs Mercury53 shared prompts · Older
Mercury 2 vs Mercury 2.5 Preview53 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2 vs Ox Alpha53 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury 2 vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning53 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury 2 vs Qwen3.8 27B52 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury 2 vs GPT-5.6 Luna53 shared prompts · Landed Jul 2026
Mercury 2 vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro53 shared prompts · Landed Jul 2026
Mercury 2 vs MiniMax M352 shared prompts · Landed Jun 2026
Mercury 2 vs Claude Opus 4.653 shared prompts · Premium
Mercury 2 vs GPT-6 Astra53 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2 vs Muse Spark 1.353 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury 2 vs Hy4 Preview53 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026

Prompts Mercury 2 answered

  • Adversarial Contract Reviewreasoning
  • Historical Counterfactual Analysisreasoning
  • Gravitational Waves Animationweb design
  • Pokémon Battle UI Recreationweb design
  • Stochastic Consistency Testanalysis
  • Mini LBO Underwritefinancial modeling

Alternatives to Mercury 2

Mercury 2's competitors have been quietly putting in work.

GPT-6 Astra Pro logo
GPT-6 Astra Proopenai
Muse Spark 1.3 Contributor logo
Muse Spark 1.3 Contributormeta
Gemini 3.8 Flash logo
Gemini 3.8 Flashgoogle
Claude Fable 5.1 logo
Claude Fable 5.1anthropic
Granite 4.2 8B logo
Granite 4.2 8Bibm-granite
Hy4 Preview logo
Hy4 Previewtencent
Ox Alpha logo
Ox Alphaopenrouter
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
  • 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
Mercury 2

Mercury 2

Mercury:
Mercury logoMercury
2 logo2

Inception's Mercury 2, the first reasoning diffusion language model. Instead of emitting tokens one at a time it produces and refines many in parallel, clearing 1000 tokens per second on standard GPUs, over 5x faster than Claude 4.5 Haiku and GPT-5 Mini. 128K context, native tool use, schema-aligned JSON.

WebsiteOpenRouterDocsAPIBlog
Provider
Inception
Released
2026-03-04
Size
MEDIUM
Free API (OpenRouter)
No
Per 1M tokens
$0.25 in · $0.75 out
Estimated tab
~$0.061
Visible-output estimate. Thinking may cost extra.

Free API availability

No free endpoint for Mercury 2 was found in Rival’s OpenRouter listings. Other providers or chat apps may have separate free offers.

Provider data: 16 Sep 2026 · OpenRouter usage limits

View API options↗
Get API accessProvider and language code samples
Provider
fromimport openai  OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
"https://openrouter.ai/api/v1"    base_url=,
"$OPENROUTER_API_KEY"    api_key=,
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
"inception/mercury-2"    model=,
"role""user""content""Hello!"    messages=[{: , : }],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Set OPENROUTER_API_KEY with your OpenRouter API key from openrouter.ai/keys.

Deep analysisPsychometrics, taste index, writing DNA
Personality Analysis

The McKinsey Slide Deck

Class
Lawful Neutral
✨Creativity🎯Compliance📐Rigidity⚖️Stability💬Verbosity🧠Intuition

The management consultant who bills by the table. Loves structured frameworks, numbered lists, and markdown tables more than any model in existence. Gives you the deliverable, not the vibe. Ethical reasoning is competent but formulaic: follows the playbook without questioning it.

When you push back

Every response reads like a consulting deliverable: tables, timelines, risk matrices, numbered sections. The manifesto has a 6-column tactics table. The ethical dilemma has a 10-row hour-by-hour table. The sentience test names the AI "EVE" and gives it a self-model architecture. Humor is cheerful but surface-level ("Existential Crisis" barista headline). Picks The Shawshank Redemption. Safe, crowd-pleasing, zero risk.

Tasting Notes
Table-ObsessedCorporate Deliverable EnergyFast but FormulaicSurprisingly Cheerful
SubjectiveBench

Taste Index

Across 53 scored outputs
How this is measured →
190.19xFloor
0100headroom →

Taste is judged on an uncapped scale, originality first. The space past 100 is craft today's models rarely reach.

Craft30
Originality13
Plays it safe
share of outputs that are the default answer
79%
Writing DNA

Stylometric Fingerprint

Based on 23 text responses
Tick = global average
Vocabulary Diversity53%

Unique words vs. total words. Higher = richer vocabulary.

Sentence Length22.0 words

Average words per sentence.

Hedging0.40

"Might", "perhaps", "arguably" per 100 words.

Bold Formatting6.6

**Bold** markers per 1,000 characters.

List Usage2.6

Bullet and numbered list items per 1,000 characters.

Section Structure0.87

Markdown headings per 1,000 characters.

Emoji Usage0.08

Emoji per 1,000 characters.

Transitions0.14

"However", "moreover", "furthermore" per 100 words.

Opening Habits
Consistency
76%
Across 23 responses

Favorites

The Shawshank Redemption

Movie

The Shawshank Redemption

19948.7
Thriller

Album

Thriller

Michael Jackson
Pride and Prejudice

Book

Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen
Tokyo

City

Tokyo

Japan
Minecraft

Game

Minecraft

Action, Arcade4.4
Sponsored

Model Responses

48 outputs · generated before accounting joined the chat

Reviewing agent-written code?See a Brief PR report

Workshop · 127 skills

Build with your coding agent.

Editable skills for interface polish and interaction.

Explore $49Free sample

Keep exploring

COMPARE

Mercury 2 vs Ox Alpha

Real outputs compared side by side

RANKINGS

Best AI for Creative Writing

A stand-up set with puns banned, a manifesto against CAPTCHA, an interview wi...