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Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 vs Mercury 3

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 29.5. Mercury 3 is 21.2x cheaper per token.

Google · Inception · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 29.5, 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, Mercury 3 is roughly 21.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

  • 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
  • cost matters — it's about 21.2x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Core performance indexes
29.5
#149
36.1
#98
27.9
#154
34.8
#103
16.5
#146
21.5
#105
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
$1.25 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$10.00 / M
$0.35 / M
Context window
1,048,576
1,000,000

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 · 12 for Mercury 3

1 shared

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 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

Mercury 3 costs less

For input processing, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 ($1.25/1M tokens) is 12.5x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 ($10.00/1M tokens) is 28.6x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 is more expensive than Mercury 3.*

* 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05
Input tokens$1.25
Output tokens$10.00
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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 is limited to 65,535 tokens.

Google
Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05
Input1,048,576 tokens
Output65,535 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

Proprietary

Closed source

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 was released on 2025-06-05, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.

Mercury 3 is 17 months newer than Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

Jun 5, 2025

1.4 years ago

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

0 days ago

1.4yr newer

Knowledge Cutoff

When training data ends

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2025-01-31, while Mercury 3's cutoff date is not specified.

We can confirm Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05's training data extends to 2025-01-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Mercury 3's cutoff date.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

Jan 2025

Mercury 3

—

Provider Availability

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 is available from Google. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05

google logo
Google
Input Price:Input: $1.25/1MOutput Price:Output: $10.00/1M

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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05
✓ Preferred
Mercury 3
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 vs Mercury 3.

Which is better, Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 or Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 29.5. Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 compare to Mercury 3 in benchmarks?

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 scores Global-MMLU-Lite: 89.2%, AIME 2025: 88.0%, FACTS Grounding: 87.8%, GPQA: 86.4%, VideoMMMU: 83.6%. Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%.

Is Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 cheaper than Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 is 12.5x cheaper for input tokens. Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 costs $1.25/M input and $10.00/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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 and Mercury 3?

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 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 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 and Mercury 3?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (29.5 vs 36.1), context window (1.0M vs 1.0M), input pricing ($1.25 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 and Mercury 3?

Gemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05 is developed by Google and Mercury 3 is developed by Inception.