Mercury 3 vs Qwen3.8 Max
Qwen3.8 Max leads the LLM Stats Score 50.7 to 36.1. Mercury 3 is 15.2x cheaper per token.
Inception · Alibaba Cloud / Qwen Team · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Qwen3.8 Max leads the overall LLM Stats Score 50.7 to 36.1, ranking #17 overall.
In the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models, Qwen3.8 Max wins 2; this is a narrower head-to-head signal than the composite indexes.
On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 15.2x 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
- cost matters — it's about 15.2x 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 Qwen3.8 Max
- overall performance matters — it scores 50.7 and ranks #17 on LLM Stats
- your work emphasizes reasoning and agents — it leads those capability indexes
- you value its reported benchmark strengths — it wins 2 of 2 exact shared results
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Capability indexes
Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks
Individual benchmarks
12 reported for Mercury 3 · 42 for Qwen3.8 Max
Mercury 3 outperforms in 0 benchmarks, while Qwen3.8 Max is better at 2 benchmarks (GPQA, IFBench).
Qwen3.8 Max 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 16.5x cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max ($1.65/1M tokens).
For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 14.1x cheaper than Qwen3.8 Max ($4.95/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Qwen3.8 Max 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 Qwen3.8 Max's 256,000 tokens. Qwen3.8 Max can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Mercury 3 is limited to 131,072 tokens.
Input capabilities
Documented input modalities across available providers
Qwen3.8 Max supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.
Qwen3.8 Max can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Mercury 3
Qwen3.8 Max
License
Usage and distribution terms
Mercury 3 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Qwen3.8 Max uses Qwen3.8-Max License.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Qwen3.8-Max License
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while Qwen3.8 Max was released on 2026-08-02.
Mercury 3 is 3 months newer than Qwen3.8 Max.
Oct 19, 2026
5 days ago
2mo newerAug 2, 2026
2 months ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Neither model specifies a knowledge cutoff date.
Unable to compare the recency of their training data.
Provider Availability
Mercury 3 is available from Inception. Qwen3.8 Max is available from DeepInfra, Fireworks, Novita, Together.
Mercury 3
Qwen3.8 Max
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Mercury 3 and Qwen3.8 Max side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Mercury 3 vs Qwen3.8 Max.