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Mercury 3 vs MiniMax M2.5

Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5 are closely matched at 36.1 and 36.6 on the LLM Stats Score. Mercury 3 is 3.2x cheaper per token.

Inception · MiniMax · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5 are closely matched on the overall LLM Stats Score at 36.1 and 36.6.

On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 3.2x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.

Based on current LLM Stats indexes, shared benchmarks, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.

Choose Mercury 3

  • cost matters — it's about 3.2x cheaper per token
  • you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

Choose MiniMax M2.5

  • you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Mercury 3
Inception
MiniMax M2.5
MiniMax
Core performance indexes
LLM Stats Score
36.1
#98
36.6
#91
Reasoning
34.8
#103
36.7
#91
Coding
21.5
#105
26.5
#81
Agents
19.4
#84
17.1
#98
Cost, coverage & limits
Benchmark wins
—
—
Input price
$0.10 / M
$0.30 / M
Output price
$0.35 / M
$1.20 / M
Context window
1,000,000
1,000,000

Individual benchmarks

12 reported for Mercury 3 · 8 for MiniMax M2.5

No common benchmarks found

Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5don'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, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) is 3.0x cheaper than MiniMax M2.5 ($0.30/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 3.4x cheaper than MiniMax M2.5 ($1.20/1M tokens).

In conclusion, MiniMax M2.5 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
Inception
Mercury 3
Input tokens$0.10
Output tokens$0.35
Best providerInception
MiniMax
MiniMax M2.5
Input tokens$0.30
Output tokens$1.20
Best providerMiniMax
Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Both models have the same input context window of 1,000,000 tokens. MiniMax M2.5 can generate longer responses up to 1,000,000 tokens, while Mercury 3 is limited to 131,072 tokens.

Inception
Mercury 3
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output131,072 tokens
MiniMax
MiniMax M2.5
Input1,000,000 tokens
Output1,000,000 tokens
Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Mercury 3 is licensed under a proprietary license, while MiniMax M2.5 uses MIT.

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

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

MiniMax M2.5

MIT

Open weights

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while MiniMax M2.5 was released on 2026-02-12.

Mercury 3 is 8 months newer than MiniMax M2.5.

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

0 days ago

8mo newer
MiniMax M2.5

Feb 12, 2026

8 months ago

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

Mercury 3 is available from Inception. MiniMax M2.5 is available from MiniMax.

Mercury 3

inception logo
Inception
Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.35/1M

MiniMax M2.5

minimax logo
MiniMax
Input Price:Input: $0.30/1MOutput Price:Output: $1.20/1M
* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5 side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mercury 3
✓ Preferred
MiniMax M2.5
Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mercury 3 vs MiniMax M2.5.

Which is better, Mercury 3 or MiniMax M2.5?

Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5 are closely matched on the LLM Stats Score at 36.1 and 36.6. Mercury 3 is made by Inception and MiniMax M2.5 is made by MiniMax. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Mercury 3 compare to MiniMax M2.5 in benchmarks?

Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%. MiniMax M2.5 scores SWE-Bench Verified: 80.2%, BFCL_v3_MultiTurn: 76.8%, BrowseComp: 76.3%, MEWC: 74.4%, GDPval-MM: 59.0%.

Is Mercury 3 cheaper than MiniMax M2.5?

Mercury 3 is 3.0x cheaper for input tokens. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception. MiniMax M2.5 costs $0.30/M input and $1.20/M output via minimax.

What are the context window sizes for Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5?

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens and MiniMax M2.5 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 Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 36.6), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.30/M), licensing (Proprietary vs MIT). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mercury 3 and MiniMax M2.5?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and MiniMax M2.5 is developed by MiniMax.

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