Model Comparison

Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Mercury 2

Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Mercury 2 is better at 0 benchmarks.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Sun Apr 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Arena Performance

Human preference votes

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mercury 2 costs less

For input processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($3.00/1M tokens) is 12.0x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.25/1M tokens).

For output processing, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ($15.00/1M tokens) is 20.0x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.75/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Claude Sonnet 4.6 is more expensive than Mercury 2.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Sun Apr 12 2026 • llm-stats.com
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input tokens$3.00
Output tokens$15.00
Best providerAnthropic
Inception
Mercury 2
Input tokens$0.25
Output tokens$0.75
Best providerInception
Notice missing or incorrect data?Start an Issue→

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Claude Sonnet 4.6 accepts 200,000 input tokens compared to Mercury 2's 128,000 tokens. Claude Sonnet 4.6 can generate longer responses up to 64,000 tokens, while Mercury 2 is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Input200,000 tokens
Output64,000 tokens
Inception
Mercury 2
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Sun Apr 12 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input Capabilities

Supported data types and modalities

Claude Sonnet 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 2 does not.

Claude Sonnet 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

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 Sonnet 4.6

Proprietary

Closed source

Mercury 2

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Claude Sonnet 4.6 was released on 2026-02-17, while Mercury 2 was released on 2026-02-24.

Mercury 2 is 0 month newer than Claude Sonnet 4.6.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

Feb 17, 2026

1 months ago

Mercury 2

Feb 24, 2026

1 months ago

1w 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 Sonnet 4.6 is available from Anthropic. Mercury 2 is available from Inception.

Claude Sonnet 4.6

anthropic logo
Anthropic
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
Higher GPQA score (89.9% vs 74.0%)
Inception
Less expensive input tokens
Less expensive output tokens

Detailed Comparison

AI Model Comparison Table
Feature
Anthropic
Claude Sonnet 4.6
Inception
Mercury 2

FAQ

Common questions about Claude Sonnet 4.6 vs Mercury 2

Claude Sonnet 4.6 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks. Claude Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 scores Tau2 Telecom: 97.9%, Tau2 Retail: 91.7%, GPQA: 89.9%, MMMLU: 89.3%, SWE-Bench Verified: 79.6%. 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 Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 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 Sonnet 4.6 is developed by Anthropic and Mercury 2 is developed by Inception.