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MAI-Code-1.1-Flash vs Mercury 3

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3 are closely matched at 27.4 and 36.1 on the LLM Stats Score. Mercury 3 is 2.8x cheaper per token.

Microsoft · Inception · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 27.4 and 36.1.

On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 2.8x 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 MAI-Code-1.1-Flash

  • you want predictable pricing at $0.20/M input and $1.20/M output

Choose Mercury 3

  • cost matters — it's about 2.8x 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.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash
Microsoft
Mercury 3
Inception
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
27.4
#162
36.1
#98
Reasoning
27.3
#159
34.8
#103
Coding
18.3
#132
21.5
#105
Agents
10.3
#139
19.4
#84
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.20 / M
$0.10 / M
Output price
$1.20 / M
$0.35 / M
Context window
256,000
1,000,000

Individual benchmarks

2 reported for MAI-Code-1.1-Flash · 12 for Mercury 3

No common benchmarks found

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash 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

Mercury 3 costs less

For input processing, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash ($0.20/1M tokens) is 2.0x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash ($1.20/1M tokens) is 3.4x more expensive than Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens).

In conclusion, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash 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
Microsoft
MAI-Code-1.1-Flash
Input tokens$0.20
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerUnknown Organization
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 MAI-Code-1.1-Flash's 256,000 tokens. Only Mercury 3 specifies output context (131,072 tokens).

Microsoft
MAI-Code-1.1-Flash
Input256,000 tokens
Output- tokens
Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash

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.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash

Proprietary

Closed source

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash was released on 2026-08-11, while Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19.

Mercury 3 is 2 months newer than MAI-Code-1.1-Flash.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash

Aug 11, 2026

2 months ago

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

1 days ago

2mo 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

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is available from GitHub Copilot. Mercury 3 is available from Inception.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash

github-copilot logo
Unknown Organization
Input Price:Input: $0.20/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M

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 MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash
✓ Preferred
Mercury 3
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about MAI-Code-1.1-Flash vs Mercury 3.

Which is better, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash or Mercury 3?

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3 are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 27.4 and 36.1. MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is made by Microsoft 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 MAI-Code-1.1-Flash compare to Mercury 3 in benchmarks?

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash scores SWE-Bench Verified: 72.6%, Terminal-Bench 2.1: 62.9%. Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%.

Is MAI-Code-1.1-Flash cheaper than Mercury 3?

Mercury 3 is 2.0x cheaper for input tokens. MAI-Code-1.1-Flash costs $0.20/M input and $1.20/M output via github-copilot. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception.

What are the context window sizes for MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3?

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash 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 MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (27.4 vs 36.1), context window (256K vs 1.0M), input pricing ($0.20 vs $0.10/M), multimodal support (yes vs no). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes MAI-Code-1.1-Flash and Mercury 3?

MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is developed by Microsoft and Mercury 3 is developed by Inception.

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