Ling 3.0 Flash vs Mercury 3
Ling 3.0 Flash and Mercury 3 are closely matched at 35.9 and 36.1 on the LLM Stats Score. Ling 3.0 Flash is 1.8x cheaper per token.
InclusionAI · Inception · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Ling 3.0 Flash and Mercury 3 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 35.9 and 36.1.
In the 4 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 4; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Ling 3.0 Flash is roughly 1.8x 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 Ling 3.0 Flash
- cost matters — it's about 1.8x cheaper per token
Choose Mercury 3
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 4 of 4 exact shared results
- 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
19 reported for Ling 3.0 Flash · 12 for Mercury 3
Ling 3.0 Flash outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Mercury 3 is better at 4 benchmarks (AA-LCR, GDPval-AA, IFBench, Tau3 Banking).
Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.
Human preference
Blind head-to-head votes and playground preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Ling 3.0 Flash ($0.06/1M tokens) is 1.7x cheaper than Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Ling 3.0 Flash ($0.18/1M tokens) is 1.9x cheaper than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Mercury 3 is more expensive than Ling 3.0 Flash.*
* 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 Ling 3.0 Flash's 131,072 tokens. Both models can generate responses up to 131,072 tokens.
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Ling 3.0 Flash was released on 2026-08-04, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.
Mercury 3 is 3 months newer than Ling 3.0 Flash.
Aug 4, 2026
2 months ago
Oct 19, 2026
0 days ago
2mo newerKnowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Ling 3.0 Flash is available from DeepInfra. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.
Ling 3.0 Flash
Mercury 3
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Ling 3.0 Flash and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Ling 3.0 Flash vs Mercury 3.