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LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 18.1. Mercury 3 is 1.1x cheaper per token.

Meituan · Inception · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 18.1, 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 1.1x 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 LongCat-Flash-Lite

  • 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 value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 1 of 1 exact shared results
  • cost matters — it's about 1.1x cheaper per token
  • 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.

LongCat-Flash-Lite
Meituan
Mercury 3
Inception
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
18.1
#236
36.1
#98
Reasoning
18.4
#229
34.8
#103
Coding
6.6
#210
21.5
#105
Agents
3.8
#182
19.4
#84
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
0 of 1
1 of 1
Input price
$0.10 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$0.40 / M
$0.35 / M
Context window
256,000
1,000,000

Individual benchmarks

13 reported for LongCat-Flash-Lite · 12 for Mercury 3

1 shared

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

Mercury 3 significantly outperforms across most benchmarks.

Fri Oct 23 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, LongCat-Flash-Lite ($0.10/1M tokens) costs the same as Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, LongCat-Flash-Lite ($0.40/1M tokens) is 1.1x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).

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

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

Lowest available price from all providers
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com
Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.40
Best providerMeituan
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

Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to LongCat-Flash-Lite's 256,000 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while LongCat-Flash-Lite is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Meituan
LongCat-Flash-Lite
Input256,000 tokens
Output128,000 tokens
Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

LongCat-Flash-Lite is licensed under MIT, while Mercury 3 uses a proprietary license.

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

LongCat-Flash-Lite

MIT

Open weights

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

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

Mercury 3 is 9 months newer than LongCat-Flash-Lite.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

Feb 5, 2026

8 months ago

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

1 days ago

8mo newer

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

LongCat-Flash-Lite is available from Meituan. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.

LongCat-Flash-Lite

meituan logo
Meituan
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M

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 LongCat-Flash-Lite and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

LongCat-Flash-Lite
✓ Preferred
Mercury 3
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about LongCat-Flash-Lite vs Mercury 3.

Which is better, LongCat-Flash-Lite or Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 18.1. LongCat-Flash-Lite is made by Meituan 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 LongCat-Flash-Lite compare to Mercury 3 in benchmarks?

LongCat-Flash-Lite scores MATH-500: 96.8%, MMLU: 85.5%, CMMLU: 82.5%, MMLU-Pro: 78.3%, Tau2 Retail: 73.1%. Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%.

Is LongCat-Flash-Lite cheaper than Mercury 3?

Both models cost $0.10 per million input tokens.

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

LongCat-Flash-Lite supports 256K 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 LongCat-Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (18.1 vs 36.1), context window (256K vs 1.0M), licensing (MIT vs Proprietary). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes LongCat-Flash-Lite and Mercury 3?

LongCat-Flash-Lite is developed by Meituan and Mercury 3 is developed by Inception.

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