Analysis of Inception's Mercury 2 and comparison to other AI models across key metrics including quality, price, performance (tokens per second & time to first token), context window & more.
Mercury 2 - Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis Artificial AnalysisK Inception •Proprietary model •Released February 2026 Mercury 2 Intelligence, Performance & Price Analysis CompareTry it out API Provider Benchmarks Model summary Intelligence #64 / 165 22 Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 3 out of 4 units for Intelligence. Speed #2 / 165 1,230.3 Output tokens per second 4 out of 4 units for Speed. Cost #31 / 165 In $0.25Out $0.75Cache Discount 90% $0.08 Cost per Intelligence Index task 3 out of 4 units for Cost. Verbosity #36 / 165 76M Output tokens from Intelligence Index 3 out of 4 units for Verbosity. Comparison Summary Mercury 2 is above average in intelligence and well priced when comparing to other models of similar price. It's also notably fast, however somewhat verbose. The model supports text input, outputs text, and has a 128k tokens context window. Mercury 2 scores 22 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, placing it above average among comparable models (median: 18). When evaluating the Intelligence Index, it generated 76M tokens, which is somewhat verbose in comparison to the median of 60M. Pricing for Mercury 2 is $0.25 per 1M input tokens (moderately priced, median: $0.25) and $0.75 per 1M output tokens (moderately priced, median: $0.90). In total, it cost $97.51 to evaluate Mercury 2 on the Intelligence Index. At 1230 tokens per second, Mercury 2 is notably fast (109). Technical specifications Reasoning YesThis page shows the reasoning version of this model. A non-reasoning variant may also exist. Input modality Supports: text Output modality Supports: text Context window 128k~192 A4 pages of size 12 Arial font 165 models in this class Metrics are compared against models of the same class: Non-reasoning models → compared only with other non-reasoning models Reasoning models → compared across both reasoning and non-reasoning Open weights models → compared only with other open weights models of the same size class: Tiny: ≤4B parameters Small: 4B–40B parameters Medium: 40B–150B parameters Large: >150B parameters Proprietary models → compared across proprietary and open weights models of the same price range, using a blended 3:1 input/output price ratio: <$0.15 per 1M tokens $0.15–$1 per 1M tokens >$1 per 1M tokens Highlights Intelligence Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index · Higher is better Speed Output tokens per second · Higher is better Cost per Task Weighted average cost (USD) per Intelligence Index task · Lower is better Prompt Options Intelligence Artificial Analysis Intelligence IndexUpdatedAgentic IndexUpdated Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR 28 of 608 models NEW Add model from specific provider Reasoning models are indicated by a lightbulb icon Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1 includes: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them. Open Weights / ProprietaryReasoning / Non-ReasoningText Only / Multimodal Inputs Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index by Open Weights / Proprietary Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1 incorporates 9 evaluations: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR 28 of 608 models NEW Add model from specific provider ProprietaryOpen Weights (Commercial Use Restricted)Open Weights Reasoning models are indicated by a lightbulb icon Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.1.1 includes: GDPval-AA v2, 𝜏³-Banking, Terminal-Bench v2.1, SciCode, Humanity's Last Exam, GPQA Diamond, CritPt, AA-Omniscience, AA-LCR. See Intelligence Index methodology for further details, including a breakdown of each evaluation and how we run them. Open Weights Indicates whether the model weights are available. Models are labelled as 'Commercial Use Restricted' if the weights are available but commercial use is limited (typically requires obtaining a paid license).