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Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 11.9. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is 1.3x cheaper per token.

Google · Inception · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 11.9, ranking #98 overall.

In the 1 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 1; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.

On price, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is roughly 1.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite 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 Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

  • cost matters — it's about 1.3x cheaper per token
  • you process long inputs — it offers a 1,048,576 token context window

Choose Mercury 3

  • overall performance matters — it scores 36.1 and ranks #98 on LLM Stats
  • your work emphasizes reasoning — it leads those capability indexes
  • you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite
Google
Mercury 3
Inception
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
11.9
#277
36.1
#98
Reasoning
12.0
#270
34.8
#103
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
$0.07 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$0.30 / M
$0.35 / M
Context window
1,048,576
1,000,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared
Index
Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite
Mercury 3
Long context
-2.0#125
23.0#18
Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite · 12 for Mercury 3

1 shared

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mercury 3 is better at 1 benchmark (GPQA).

Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Thu Oct 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Human preference

Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores

Pricing Analysis

Price comparison per million tokens

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite costs less

For input processing, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite ($0.07/1M tokens) is 1.4x cheaper than Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite ($0.30/1M tokens) is 1.2x cheaper than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mercury 3 is more expensive than Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Thu Oct 22 2026 • llm-stats.com
Google
Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite
Input tokens$0.07
Output tokens$0.30
Best providerGoogle
Inception
Mercury 3
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.35
Best providerInception
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite accepts 1,048,576 input tokens compared to Mercury 3's 1,000,000 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is limited to 8,192 tokens.

Google
Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output8,192 tokens
Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Thu Oct 22 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

Text
Images
Audio
Video

Mercury 3

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.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

Proprietary

Closed source

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite was released on 2025-02-05, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.

Mercury 3 is 21 months newer than Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

Feb 5, 2025

1.7 years ago

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

3 days ago

1.7yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-06-01, while Mercury 3's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite's training data extends to 2024-06-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Mercury 3's cutoff date.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

Jun 2024

Mercury 3

—

Provider Availability

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is available from Google. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite

google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $0.07/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.30/1M

Mercury 3

inception logo
Inception
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.35/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite
✓ Preferred
Mercury 3
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3.

Which is better, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 11.9. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is made by Google and Mercury 3 is made by Inception. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite compare to Mercury 3 in benchmarks?

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite scores MATH: 86.8%, FACTS Grounding: 83.6%, Global-MMLU-Lite: 78.2%, MMLU-Pro: 71.6%, MMMU: 68.0%. Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%.

Is Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite cheaper than Mercury 3?

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is 1.4x cheaper for input tokens. Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite costs $0.07/M input and $0.30/M output via google. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception.

What are the context window sizes for Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite supports 1.0M tokens and Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

What are the main differences between Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (11.9 vs 36.1), context window (1.0M vs 1.0M), input pricing ($0.07 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite is developed by Google and Mercury 3 is developed by Inception.

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