Mercury 3 vs o4-mini
Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 27.0. Mercury 3 is 11.8x cheaper per token.
Inception · OpenAI · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 27.0, ranking #98 overall.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Mercury 3 wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 11.8x 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 2 of 2 exact shared results
- cost matters — it's about 11.8x 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
Choose o4-mini
- you want predictable pricing at $1.10/M input and $4.40/M output
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Individual benchmarks
12 reported for Mercury 3 · 14 for o4-mini
Mercury 3 outperforms in 2 benchmarks (GPQA, Multi-Challenge), while o4-mini is better at 0 benchmarks.
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, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) is 11.0x cheaper than o4-mini ($1.10/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 12.6x cheaper than o4-mini ($4.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, o4-mini is more expensive than Mercury 3.*
* 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 o4-mini's 200,000 tokens. Mercury 3 can generate longer responses up to 131,072 tokens, while o4-mini is limited to 100,000 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
o4-mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.
o4-mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mercury 3
o4-mini
License
Usage and distribution terms
Both models are licensed under proprietary licenses.
Both models have usage restrictions defined by their respective organizations.
Proprietary
Closed source
Proprietary
Closed source
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while o4-mini was released on 2025-04-16.
Mercury 3 is 18 months newer than o4-mini.
Oct 19, 2026
3 days ago
1.5yr newerApr 16, 2025
1.5 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
o4-mini has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2024-05-31, while Mercury 3's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm o4-mini's training data extends to 2024-05-31, but cannot make a direct comparison without Mercury 3's cutoff date.
—
May 2024
Provider Availability
Mercury 3 is available from Inception. o4-mini is available from OpenAI.
Mercury 3
o4-mini
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mercury 3 and o4-mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mercury 3 vs o4-mini.