Inception, proprietary

# Mercury 2

> Mercury 2 by Inception, released February 2026. Ranked #175 of 354 with a Noometry Index of 39.1. API: $0.25 in / $0.75 out per M tokens. 128K context. Scores, sources and comparisons.
- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/models/mercury-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Title: Mercury 2 Benchmarks, Price & Rank (October 2026) | Noometry

Mercury 2 by Inception ranks 175th of 354 ranked models on the Noometry Index as of October 2026, with a score of 39.1. Its strongest category is long context, where it ranks 154th. API pricing starts at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens, with a 128K-token context window.

Last verified October 10, 2026

## Specifications

- **Noometry rank:** #175 of 354
- **Index score:** 39.1
- **Evidence:** Confirmed 17 results
- **Provider:** [Inception](https://noometry.com/providers/inception)
- **Released:** February 20, 2026
- **Weights:** Proprietary
- **Reasoning:** Yes
- **Context window:** 128K
- **Max output:** 50K
- **Input price:** $0.25 / M
- **Output price:** $0.75 / M
- **Blended price:** $0.38 / M
- **Output speed:** Not measured
- **Value:** #56 of 219
- **Knowledge cutoff:** January 2025
- **Input:** text

## Category scores

Each category score combines every public result we have in that category.

Mercury 2 category scores

1.  Coding 33.5
2.  Reasoning 23.8
3.  Knowledge 36.2
4.  Multilingual 46.6
5.  Instruction Following 70.2
6.  Long Context 40.5
7.  Writing & Preference 53.8
8.  020406080

Mercury 2 category ranks
| Category | Score | Rank | Results |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Coding](https://noometry.com/best/coding) | 33.5 | #255 | 4 |
| [Reasoning](https://noometry.com/best/reasoning) | 23.8 | #170 | 2 |
| [Knowledge](https://noometry.com/best/knowledge) | 36.2 | #172 | 2 |
| [Multilingual](https://noometry.com/best/multilingual) | 46.6 | #157 | 1 |
| [Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/best/instruction-following) | 70.2 | #165 | 1 |
| [Long Context](https://noometry.com/best/long-context) | 40.5 | #154 | 1 |
| [Writing & Preference](https://noometry.com/best/writing) | 53.8 | #155 | 3 |

## Strengths and weaknesses

Categories where Mercury 2 places highest and lowest among the models ranked in each, with its score against that category's median.

### Strongest categories

Mercury 2: strongest categories
| Category | Score | vs median | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Reasoning](https://noometry.com/best/reasoning) | 23.8 | +0.2 | #170 of 350, top 49% |
| [Writing & Preference](https://noometry.com/best/writing) | 53.8 | +0.0 | #155 of 312, top 50% |
| [Long Context](https://noometry.com/best/long-context) | 40.5 | −0.5 | #154 of 296, top 53% |

### Weakest categories

Mercury 2: weakest categories
| Category | Score | vs median | Rank |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Coding](https://noometry.com/best/coding) | 33.5 | −5.2 | #255 of 340, top 75% |
| [Knowledge](https://noometry.com/best/knowledge) | 36.2 | −1.1 | #172 of 314, top 55% |
| [Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/best/instruction-following) | 70.2 | −1.1 | #165 of 305, top 55% |

## Closest competitors

The models ranked just above and below Mercury 2. When scores are this close, price and speed are often the better way to choose.

Models ranked closest to Mercury 2
| Model | Rank | Score | Blended $/M | Speed |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Step 2 16k Exp 202412](https://noometry.com/models/step-2-16k-exp-202412) | #171 | 39.2 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-step-2-16k-exp-202412) |
| [Qwen3 32B](https://noometry.com/models/qwen3-32b) | #172 | 39.2 | $1.22 | 86 | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-qwen3-32b) |
| [Gemini 2.0 Pro](https://noometry.com/models/gemini-2-0-pro) | #173 | 39.1 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-2-0-pro-vs-mercury-2) |
| [Molmo 2 8b](https://noometry.com/models/molmo-2-8b) | #174 | 39.1 | — | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-molmo-2-8b) |
| [Mistral Large 3](https://noometry.com/models/mistral-large-3) | #176 | 39.1 | $0.38 | 7 | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-mistral-large-3) |
| [GLM-4.5-Air](https://noometry.com/models/glm-4-5-air) | #177 | 38.9 | $0.43 | 160 | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/glm-4-5-air-vs-mercury-2) |
| [MiniMax-M2.1](https://noometry.com/models/minimax-m2-1) | #178 | 38.9 | $0.52 | — | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-minimax-m2-1) |
| [Qwen3-30B-A3B](https://noometry.com/models/qwen3-30b-a3b) | #179 | 38.9 | $0.21 | 42 | [Compare](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-qwen3-30b-a3b) |

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. [Advertise on Noometry](https://noometry.com/advertise)

## Benchmark results

Every published result we track, with its source. Bold rows are the ones used for ranking; where several exist we prefer independent runs over self-reported numbers.

### Coding

Mercury 2 Coding benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena WebDev](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-webdev) | 1171 | #111 of 113, top 99% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/webdev) | 2026-10-08 |
| [SciCode](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/scicode) | 38.7% | #86 of 121, top 72% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [WeirdML](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/weirdml) | 43.2% | #66 of 119, top 56% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [LMArena Coding](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-coding) | 1391 | #141 of 294, top 48% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [ALE-Bench](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/ale-bench) | 785.58 | #60 of 105, top 58% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |

### Reasoning

Mercury 2 Reasoning benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [CritPt](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/critpt) | 0.8% | #87 of 134, top 65% |  | [Epoch AI](https://epoch.ai/benchmarks) |  |
| [LMArena Hard Prompts](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-hard-prompts) | 1362 | #153 of 297, top 52% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Knowledge

Mercury 2 Knowledge benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Vectara Hallucination Rate](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/vectara-hallucination) (lower is better) | 12.3% | #77 of 96, top 81% |  | [Vectara Hallucination Leaderboard](https://github.com/vectara/hallucination-leaderboard) |  |
| [LMArena Expert](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-expert) | 1358 | #149 of 273, top 55% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Multilingual

Mercury 2 Multilingual benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Non-English](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-non-english) | 1331 | #157 of 297, top 53% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Chinese](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-chinese) | 1417 | #129 of 285, top 46% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Russian](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-russian) | 1304 | #174 of 283, top 62% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Instruction Following

Mercury 2 Instruction Following benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Instruction Following](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-instruction-following) | 1329 | #158 of 298, top 54% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Long Context

Mercury 2 Long Context benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Longer Query](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-longer-query) | 1330 | #164 of 291, top 57% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

### Writing & Preference

Mercury 2 Writing & Preference benchmark results
| Benchmark | Score | Position | Setting | Source | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [LMArena Text](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-text) | 1355 | #154 of 297, top 52% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Creative Writing](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-creative-writing) | 1289 | #175 of 295, top 60% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |
| [LMArena Multi-Turn](https://noometry.com/benchmarks/arena-multi-turn) | 1358 | #150 of 295, top 51% |  | [LMArena](https://lmarena.ai/leaderboard/text) | 2026-10-08 |

## API pricing by provider

Mercury 2 API prices
| Route | Input $/M | Output $/M | Cached input $/M | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [inception](https://docs.inceptionlabs.ai/get-started/models) | $0.25 | $0.75 | $0.025 | 2026-10-10 |
| [openrouter](https://openrouter.ai/inception/mercury-2) | $0.25 | $0.75 | $0.025 | 2026-10-10 |

[All Inception API prices →](https://noometry.com/llm-pricing/inception) [Estimate your cost →](https://noometry.com/tools/cost-calculator)

## Compare Mercury 2

-   [Mercury 2 vs Molmo 2 8b](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-molmo-2-8b)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Mistral Large 3](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-mistral-large-3)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Gemini 2.0 Pro](https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-2-0-pro-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs GLM-4.5-Air](https://noometry.com/compare/glm-4-5-air-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Qwen3 32B](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-qwen3-32b)
-   [Mercury 2 vs MiniMax-M2.1](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-minimax-m2-1)
-   [Mercury 2 vs GPT-6 Astra](https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-6-astra-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Claude Fable 5.1](https://noometry.com/compare/claude-fable-5-1-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash](https://noometry.com/compare/gemini-3-8-flash-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Kimi K3](https://noometry.com/compare/kimi-k3-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Grok 4.6](https://noometry.com/compare/grok-4-6-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Qwen3.8 Max](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-qwen3-8-max)
-   [Mercury 2 vs GLM-5.3](https://noometry.com/compare/glm-5-3-vs-mercury-2)
-   [Mercury 2 vs Muse Spark 1.3](https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-2-vs-muse-spark-1-3)

## Other Inception models

-   [Mercury](https://noometry.com/models/mercury)37.6
-   [Mercury 2.5](https://noometry.com/models/mercury-2-5)33.5
-   [Mercury Edit 2](https://noometry.com/models/mercury-edit-2)

## Frequently asked questions

### How good is Mercury 2?

Mercury 2 by Inception ranks 175th of 354 ranked models on the Noometry Index as of October 2026, with a score of 39.1. Its strongest category is long context, where it ranks 154th. API pricing starts at $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens, with a 128K-token context window.

### How much does Mercury 2 cost?

Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens on Inception's own API, with cached input at $0.025.

### What is Mercury 2's context window?

Mercury 2 accepts up to 128K tokens of input and can write up to 50K tokens in one response.

### Is Mercury 2 open source?

No. Mercury 2 is proprietary and available only through Inception's API and partner platforms.

### What are Mercury 2's strengths and weaknesses?

Relative to other ranked models, Mercury 2 places best in reasoning, writing & preference, long context and lowest in coding, knowledge, instruction following.

### What is Mercury 2 best at?

Its best category is long context, where it ranks 154th on Noometry.

### Cite this page

Noometry. (2026). Mercury 2 benchmarks and pricing. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://noometry.com/models/mercury-2

Quote Noometry with a link back to this page. It is also available in [Markdown](https://noometry.com/md/models/mercury-2.md).