Mercury 3 vs Nova Micro

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 1.9. Nova Micro is 2.8x cheaper per token.

Inception · Amazon · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 1.9, 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, Nova Micro 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 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
you process long inputs — it offers a 1,000,000 token context window
you want the most recent training data — it shipped Oct 2026

Choose Nova Micro

cost matters — it's about 2.8x cheaper per token

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Nova Micro

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

36.1

#98 · 10 evals

Best

1.9

#340 · 17 evals

Reasoning

34.8

#103 · 8 evals

Best

1.2

#335 · 11 evals

Coding

21.5

#105 · 1 evals

Best

2.5

#248 · 1 evals

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

1 of 1

Best

0 of 1

Input price

$0.10 / M

$0.03 / M

Best

Output price

$0.35 / M

$0.14 / M

Best

Context window

1,000,000

Best

128,000

Individual benchmarks

12 reported for Mercury 3 · 17 for Nova Micro

1 shared

Mercury 3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Nova Micro is better at 0 benchmarks.

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

Nova Micro costs less

For input processing, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) is 3.3x more expensive than Nova Micro ($0.03/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 2.5x more expensive than Nova Micro ($0.14/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Mercury 3 is more expensive than Nova Micro.*

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

Lowest available price from all providers

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Mercury 3

Input tokens$0.10

Output tokens$0.35

Best providerInception

Nova Micro

Input tokens$0.03

Output tokens$0.14

Best providerAWS Bedrock

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Nova Micro's 128,000 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while Nova Micro is limited to 128,000 tokens.

Mercury 3

Input1,000,000 tokens

Output131,072 tokens

Nova Micro

Input128,000 tokens

Output128,000 tokens

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

License

Usage and distribution terms

Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.

Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Nova Micro

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while Nova Micro was released on 2024-11-20.

Mercury 3 is 23 months newer than Nova Micro.

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

3 days ago

1.9yr newer

Nova Micro

Nov 20, 2024

1.9 years 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. Nova Micro is available from Bedrock.

Mercury 3

Inception

Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.35/1M

Nova Micro

AWS Bedrock

Input Price:Input: $0.03/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.14/1M

* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

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

Mercury 3

✓ Preferred

Nova Micro

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mercury 3 vs Nova Micro.

Which is better, Mercury 3 or Nova Micro?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 1.9. Mercury 3 is made by Inception and Nova Micro is made by Amazon. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Mercury 3 compare to Nova Micro in benchmarks?

Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%. Nova Micro scores GSM8k: 92.3%, ARC-C: 90.2%, Translation Set1→en COMET22: 88.7%, Translation en→Set1 COMET22: 88.5%, IFEval: 87.2%.

Is Mercury 3 cheaper than Nova Micro?

Nova Micro is 3.3x cheaper for input tokens. Mercury 3 costs $0.10/M input and $0.35/M output via inception. Nova Micro costs $0.03/M input and $0.14/M output via bedrock.

What are the context window sizes for Mercury 3 and Nova Micro?

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens and Nova Micro supports 128K 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 Nova Micro?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 1.9), context window (1.0M vs 128K), input pricing ($0.10 vs $0.03/M). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mercury 3 and Nova Micro?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and Nova Micro is developed by Amazon.

Mercury 3 vs Nova Micro