Model Comparison

Claude 3 Sonnet vs Mercury 2

Mercury 2 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Mercury 2 is 16.0x cheaper per token.

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Performance Benchmarks

Comparative analysis across standard metrics

1 benchmarks

Claude 3 Sonnet outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mercury 2 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Mercury 2 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mercury 2 costs less

For input processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($3.00/1M tokens) is 12.0x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.25/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude 3 Sonnet ($15.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.75/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude 3 Sonnet is more expensive than Mercury 2.*

* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens

Lowest available price from all providers
Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Inception
Mercury 2
Input tokens$0.25
Output tokens$0.75
Best providerInception
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Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude 3 Sonnet accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Mercury 2's 128,000 tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet can generate longer responses up to 200,000 tokens, while Mercury 2 is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Input200,000 tokens
Output200,000 tokens
Inception
Mercury 2
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Thu Apr 16 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude 3 Sonnet supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 2 does not.

Claude 3 Sonnet can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mercury 2

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.

Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Proprietary

Closed source

Mercury 2

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude 3 Sonnet was released on 2024-02-29, while Mercury 2 was released on 2026-02-24.

Mercury 2 is 24 months newer than Claude 3 Sonnet.

Claude 3 Sonnet

Feb 29, 2024

2.1 years ago

Mercury 2

Feb 24, 2026

1 months ago

2.0yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.

Unable to compare the recency of their training data.

No cutoff dates available

Provider Availability

Claude 3 Sonnet is available from Anthropic, Bedrock, Google. Mercury 2 is available from Inception.

Claude 3 Sonnet

anthropic logo
Anthropic
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
bedrock logo
AWS Bedrock
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M
google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $3.00/1MOutput Price:Output: $15.00/1M

Mercury 2

inception logo
Inception
Input Price:Input: $0.25/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.75/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

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Key Takeaways

Anthropic
Larger context window (200,000 tokens)
Supports multimodal inputs
Inception
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens
Higher GPQA score (74.0% vs 40.4%)

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude 3 Sonnet
Inception
Mercury 2

FAQ

Common questions about Claude 3 Sonnet vs Mercury 2

Mercury 2 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude 3 Sonnet is made by Anthropic and Mercury 2 is made by Inception. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their benchmark scores, pricing, and capabilities above.
Claude 3 Sonnet scores ARC-C: 93.2%, GSM8k: 92.3%, HellaSwag: 89.0%, MGSM: 83.5%, BIG-Bench Hard: 82.9%. Mercury 2 scores AIME 2025: 91.1%, GPQA: 74.0%, IFBench: 71.0%, LiveCodeBench: 67.0%, Tau2 Airline: 53.0%.
Mercury 2 is 12.0x cheaper for input tokens. Claude 3 Sonnet costs $3.00/M input and $15.00/M output via anthropic. Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input and $0.75/M output via inception.
Claude 3 Sonnet supports 200K tokens and Mercury 2 supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.
Key differences include context window (200K vs 128K), input pricing ($3.00 vs $0.25/M), multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.
Claude 3 Sonnet is developed by Anthropic and Mercury 2 is developed by Inception.