Home › Compare › Inception: Mercury 2 vs Inception: Mercury 3
Inception: Mercury 2 vs Inception: Mercury 3: API Pricing Compared
Comparing Inception: Mercury 2 and Inception: Mercury 3: on combined input+output list price, Inception: Mercury 3 is cheaper at $0.45 vs $1 per 1M tokens — a difference of $0.55 (55%). Inception: Mercury 2 costs $0.25 in / $0.75 out with a 128,000-token context; Inception: Mercury 3 costs $0.1 in / $0.35 out with a 1,000,000-token context.
| Inception: Mercury 2 | Inception: Mercury 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input /1M | $0.25 | $0.1 |
| Output /1M | $0.75 | $0.35 |
| Cached input /1M | $0.025 | $0.01 |
| Context window | 128,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Max output tokens | 50,000 | 131,072 |
| Cost @ 10M in + 2M out / mo | $4 | $1.7 |
Estimate your own workload in the cost calculator, or open the full pages for Inception: Mercury 2 and Inception: Mercury 3.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, Inception: Mercury 2 or Inception: Mercury 3?
Inception: Mercury 3 is cheaper on combined list price: $0.45 vs $1 per 1M tokens (input + output). At 10M input + 2M output tokens per month, Inception: Mercury 2 costs $4 and Inception: Mercury 3 costs $1.7.
Which has the larger context window, Inception: Mercury 2 or Inception: Mercury 3?
Inception: Mercury 2 has a context window of 128,000 tokens; Inception: Mercury 3 has 1,000,000 tokens. The larger one is Inception: Mercury 3.
Price snapshot October 21, 2026, refreshed daily.