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DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 vs Mercury 2

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 leads the LLM Stats Score 51.0 to 23.3. Mercury 2 is 1.4x cheaper per token.

DeepSeek · Inception · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 51.0 to 23.3, ranking #15 overall.

On price, Mercury 2 is roughly 1.4x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 also accepts a larger context window (1,048,576 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017

  • overall performance matters — it scores 51.0 and ranks #15 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

Choose Mercury 2

  • cost matters — it's about 1.4x cheaper per token

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
DeepSeek
Mercury 2
Inception
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
51.0
#15
23.3
#197
Reasoning
48.6
#18
22.4
#192
Coding
39.1
#15
12.0
#171
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.30 / M
$0.25 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$0.75 / M
Context window
1,048,576
128,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
Mercury 2
Math
31.8#67
22.8#143
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

11 reported for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 · 6 for Mercury 2

No common benchmarks found

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Mercury 2don't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Mercury 2 costs less

For input processing, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.2x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.25/1M tokens).

For output processing, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 ($1.20/1M tokens) is 1.6x more expensive than Mercury 2 ($0.75/1M tokens).

In conclusion, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is more expensive than Mercury 2.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com
DeepSeek
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerDeepSeek
Inception
Mercury 2
Input tokens$0.25
Output tokens$0.75
Best providerInception
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Mercury 2's 128,000 tokens. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 can generate longer responses up to 393,216 tokens, while Mercury 2 is limited to 8,192 tokens.

DeepSeek
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output393,216 tokens
Inception
Mercury 2
Input128,000 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Mon Oct 19 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 2 does not.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mercury 2

Text
Images
Audio
Video

License

Usage and distribution terms

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is licensed under MIT, while Mercury 2 uses a proprietary license.

License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017

MIT

Open weights

Mercury 2

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 was released on 2026-10-17, while Mercury 2 was released on 2026-02-24.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is 8 months newer than Mercury 2.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017

Oct 17, 2026

2 days ago

7mo newer
Mercury 2

Feb 24, 2026

7 months ago

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

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is available from DeepSeek. Mercury 2 is available from Inception.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017

deepseek logo
DeepSeek
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

Mercury 2

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

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Mercury 2 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017
✓ Preferred
Mercury 2
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 vs Mercury 2.

Which is better, DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 or Mercury 2?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 leads the LLM Stats Score 51.0 to 23.3. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is made by DeepSeek and Mercury 2 is made by Inception. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 compare to Mercury 2 in benchmarks?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 scores BabyVision: 92.5%, Chartography: 83.0%, DeepSWE 1.1: 77.0%, NL2Repo: 68.2%, AutomationBench: 60.5%. Mercury 2 scores AIME 2025: 91.1%, GPQA: 74.0%, IFBench: 71.0%, LiveCodeBench: 67.0%, Tau2 Airline: 53.0%.

Is DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 cheaper than Mercury 2?

Mercury 2 is 1.2x cheaper for input tokens. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via deepseek. Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input and $0.75/M output via inception.

What are the context window sizes for DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Mercury 2?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 supports 1.0M tokens and Mercury 2 supports 128K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Mercury 2?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (51.0 vs 23.3), context window (1.0M vs 128K), input pricing ($0.30 vs $0.25/M), multimodal support (yes vs no), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 and Mercury 2?

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is developed by DeepSeek and Mercury 2 is developed by Inception.

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