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  1. Home
  2. Models
  3. Mercury
Updated Mar 29, 2026
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Openings

How Mercury starts an answer

The first lines of 5 of its 25 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…

2,067 words
A “What‑If” Timeline: Transistor Invented 1920 → 1980 Below is a chronological, cause‑and‑effect sketch of how an early transistor would reshape technology, economics, and geopolitics.
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…

1,745 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.)
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…

1,653 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).
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…

1,292 words
Dish Title: Eclipse of the Ocean & Forest Concept: A multi‑component, molecular‑gastronomy inspired plate that juxtaposes the briny depth of the sea with the earthy richness of the forest.
Read the full answer

Advanced Investment Memo (IC Memo)

You are writing an internal investment committee memo for a long/short equity fund. Company (fictional): LedgerLift (ticker: LLLT) – B2B…

959 words
Investment Committee Memo – LedgerLift (LLLT) Prepared for: Long/Short Equity Committee Date: 8 Feb 2026 Recommendation Long – target price $25–$30 (12‑month horizon). Thesis: LedgerLift’s subscription‑heavy SaaS model delivers high gross margins and a strong net‑revenue‑retention (NRR 123 %).
Read the full answer

Compare Mercury

Mercury vs Mercury 253 shared prompts · Newer
Mercury vs Mercury 2.5 Preview54 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury vs Ox Alpha54 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning54 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury vs Qwen3.8 27B53 shared prompts · Landed Aug 2026
Mercury vs GPT-5.6 Luna54 shared prompts · Landed Jul 2026
Mercury vs GPT-5.6 Luna Pro54 shared prompts · Landed Jul 2026
Mercury vs MiniMax M353 shared prompts · Landed Jun 2026
Mercury vs Claude Opus 4.653 shared prompts · Bigger context
Mercury vs GPT-6 Astra54 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury vs Muse Spark 1.354 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026
Mercury vs Hy4 Preview54 shared prompts · Landed Sep 2026

Prompts Mercury answered

  • AI Ethics Dilemmareasoning
  • Math Misconception Testreasoning
  • Interactive Catan Boardweb design
  • Retro macOS UI Recreationweb design
  • AI-Generated Manifestoconversation
  • Minimalist Logo SVGimage generation

Alternatives to Mercury

Mercury'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
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Mercury

Mercury

Mercury:
Mercury logoMercury
2 logo2

The first diffusion large language model. Discrete diffusion runs 5 to 10x faster than speed-tuned models like GPT-4.1 Nano and Claude 3.5 Haiku while matching them, which is what makes voice agents and search viable.

WebsiteOpenRouterDocsAPIPaperBlog
Provider
Inception
Released
2025-06-26
Parameters
Not disclosed
Free API (OpenRouter)
No
Per 1M tokens
$10 in · $10 out
Rival’s tab
$0.02
25/59 receipts survived +~$0.412 from the pre-receipt era

Free API availability

No free endpoint for Mercury 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↗

Benchmarks

Speed
5-10x faster than GPT-4.1 Nano
source ↗
Performance
Matches GPT-4.1 Nano and Claude 3.5 Haiku
source ↗
HumanEval
90.0%
source ↗
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"    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.

Also on Azure AI Foundry · Amazon Bedrock

Deep analysisPsychometrics, taste index, writing DNA
Personality Analysis

The Corporate Intern

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

The corporate training video narrator. Unfailingly positive, speaks in platitudes, and treats Steve Jobs like a motivational poster. Optimized for safety and blandness in equal measure.

When you push back

Responds to every prompt with the enthusiasm of a LinkedIn influencer. Fake Steve Jobs interview sounds like a TED talk transcript. The model most likely to say "Let's ensure it benefits everyone."

Tasting Notes
Aggressively InoffensiveTemplate-DrivenMotivational Poster EnergyReliable but Uninspired
SubjectiveBench

Taste Index

Across 59 scored outputs
How this is measured →
150.15xFloor
0100headroom →

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

Craft24
Originality12
Plays it safe
share of outputs that are the default answer
59%
Writing DNA

Stylometric Fingerprint

Based on 26 text responses
Tick = global average
Vocabulary Diversity60%

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

Sentence Length31.1 words

Average words per sentence.

Hedging0.78

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

Bold Formatting4.1

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

List Usage2.8

Bullet and numbered list items per 1,000 characters.

Section Structure0.88

Markdown headings per 1,000 characters.

Emoji Usage0.03

Emoji per 1,000 characters.

Transitions0.06

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

Opening Habits
Consistency
64%
Across 26 responses

Favorites

Inception

Movie

Inception

20108.4
Kind of Blue

Album

Kind of Blue

Miles Davis
To Kill a Mockingbird

Book

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee
Minecraft

Game

Minecraft

Action, Arcade4.4
Sponsored

Model Responses

54 outputs · $0.02 tracked across 25 receipts

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Workshop · 127 skills

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Mercury 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...