Laguna XS 2.1 vs Mercury 3
Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 23.9. Laguna XS 2.1 is 1.3x cheaper per token.
Poolside · Inception · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 23.9, ranking #98 overall.
On price, Laguna XS 2.1 is roughly 1.3x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Mercury 3 also accepts a larger context window (1,000,000 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 Laguna XS 2.1
- cost matters — it's about 1.3x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
Choose Mercury 3
- overall performance matters — it scores 36.1 and ranks #98 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and coding — it leads those capability indexes
- you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
4 reported for Laguna XS 2.1 · 12 for Mercury 3
Laguna XS 2.1 and Mercury 3don'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
For input processing, Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.10/1M tokens) costs the same as Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Laguna XS 2.1 ($0.20/1M tokens) is 1.7x cheaper than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mercury 3 is more expensive than Laguna XS 2.1.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Laguna XS 2.1's 262,144 tokens. Only Mercury 3 specifies output context (131,072 tokens).
License
Usage and distribution terms
Laguna XS 2.1 is licensed under OpenMDW License v1.1, while Mercury 3 uses a proprietary license.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
OpenMDW License v1.1
Open weights
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Laguna XS 2.1 was released on 2026-07-02, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.
Mercury 3 is 4 months newer than Laguna XS 2.1.
Jul 2, 2026
3 months ago
Oct 19, 2026
0 days ago
3mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Laguna XS 2.1 is available from Poolside. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.
Laguna XS 2.1
Mercury 3
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Laguna XS 2.1 and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Laguna XS 2.1 vs Mercury 3.