Mercury 3 vs Seed 2.0 Mini

Q: Is Mercury 3 cheaper than Seed 2.0 Mini?

Both models cost $0.10 per million input tokens.

Q: What are the context window sizes for Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini?

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens and Seed 2.0 Mini supports 256K tokens. A larger context window lets you process longer documents, conversations, or codebases in a single request.

Q: What are the main differences between Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 27.8), context window (1.0M vs 256K), multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Q: Who makes Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and Seed 2.0 Mini is developed by ByteDance.

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 27.8. Mercury 3 is 1.1x cheaper per token.

Inception · ByteDance · Updated for 2026

Which is better?

Mercury 3 leads the overall LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 27.8, ranking #98 overall.

The models split the 2 individual benchmarks reported for both models evenly.

On price, Mercury 3 is roughly 1.1x 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 — it leads those capability indexes
cost matters — it's about 1.1x 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 Seed 2.0 Mini

you want predictable pricing at $0.10/M input and $0.40/M output

At a glance

The differences that matter most.

Better token value: Mercury 3

Core performance indexes

LLM Stats Score

36.1

#98 · 10 evals

Best

27.8

#159 · 79 evals

Reasoning

34.8

#103 · 8 evals

Best

28.7

#148 · 59 evals

Coding

21.5

#105 · 1 evals

Best

1.5

#254 · 1 evals

Agents

19.4

#84 · 4 evals

Best

1.1

#195 · 1 evals

Cost, coverage & limits

Benchmark wins

1 of 2

Input price

$0.10 / M

Output price

$0.35 / M

Best

$0.40 / M

Context window

1,000,000

Best

256,000

Capability indexes

Additional strengths measured across groups of related public benchmarks

1 shared

Index

Mercury 3

Seed 2.0 Mini

Long context

23.0#18 · 2 evals

16.4#47 · 5 evals

Conservative TrueSkill rating · higher is betterHow scores work

Individual benchmarks

12 reported for Mercury 3 · 83 for Seed 2.0 Mini

2 shared

Mercury 3 outperforms in 1 benchmarks (GPQA), while Seed 2.0 Mini is better at 1 benchmark (Multi-Challenge).

Both models are evenly matched across the 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

Mercury 3 costs less

For input processing, Mercury 3 ($0.10/1M tokens) costs the same as Seed 2.0 Mini ($0.10/1M tokens).

For output processing, Mercury 3 ($0.35/1M tokens) is 1.1x cheaper than Seed 2.0 Mini ($0.40/1M tokens).

In conclusion, Seed 2.0 Mini 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

Mercury 3

Input tokens$0.10

Output tokens$0.35

Best providerInception

Seed 2.0 Mini

Input tokens$0.10

Output tokens$0.40

Best providerDeepinfra

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Context Window

Maximum input and output token capacity

Mercury 3 accepts 1,000,000 input tokens compared to Seed 2.0 Mini's 256,000 tokens. Seed 2.0 Mini can generate longer responses up to 256,000 tokens, while Mercury 3 is limited to 131,072 tokens.

Mercury 3

Input1,000,000 tokens

Output131,072 tokens

Seed 2.0 Mini

Input256,000 tokens

Output256,000 tokens

Fri Oct 23 2026 • llm-stats.com

Input capabilities

Documented input modalities across available providers

Seed 2.0 Mini supports multimodal inputs, whereas Mercury 3 does not.

Seed 2.0 Mini can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.

Mercury 3

Text

Images

Audio

Video

Seed 2.0 Mini

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.

Mercury 3

Proprietary

Closed source

Seed 2.0 Mini

Proprietary

Closed source

Release Timeline

When each model was launched

Mercury 3 was released on 2026-10-19, while Seed 2.0 Mini was released on 2026-02-17.

Mercury 3 is 8 months newer than Seed 2.0 Mini.

Mercury 3

Oct 19, 2026

0 days ago

8mo newer

Seed 2.0 Mini

Feb 17, 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. Seed 2.0 Mini is available from DeepInfra.

Mercury 3

Inception

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

Seed 2.0 Mini

Deepinfra

Input Price:Input: $0.10/1MOutput Price:Output: $0.40/1M

* Prices shown are per million tokens

Outputs Comparison

Notice missing or incorrect data?

Judge for yourself.

Run your own prompts against Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.

Mercury 3

✓ Preferred

Seed 2.0 Mini

Open in Playground

FAQ

Common questions about Mercury 3 vs Seed 2.0 Mini.

Which is better, Mercury 3 or Seed 2.0 Mini?

Mercury 3 leads the LLM Stats Score 36.1 to 27.8. Mercury 3 is made by Inception and Seed 2.0 Mini is made by ByteDance. The best choice depends on your use case — compare their capability indexes, individual benchmarks, pricing, and limits above.

How does Mercury 3 compare to Seed 2.0 Mini in benchmarks?

Mercury 3 scores GPQA: 89.2%, AA-LCR: 77.7%, IFBench: 76.8%, MRCR v2: 75.5%, DeepSearchQA: 71.3%. Seed 2.0 Mini scores CountBench: 95.5%, VLMsAreBlind: 93.1%, Graphwalks parents <128k: 93.0%, CharXiv-D: 91.9%, LongFact Concepts: 91.4%.

Is Mercury 3 cheaper than Seed 2.0 Mini?

Both models cost $0.10 per million input tokens.

What are the context window sizes for Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini?

Mercury 3 supports 1.0M tokens and Seed 2.0 Mini supports 256K 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 Seed 2.0 Mini?

Key differences include LLM Stats Score (36.1 vs 27.8), context window (1.0M vs 256K), multimodal support (no vs yes). See the full comparison above for benchmark-by-benchmark results.

Who makes Mercury 3 and Seed 2.0 Mini?

Mercury 3 is developed by Inception and Seed 2.0 Mini is developed by ByteDance.

Mercury 3 vs Seed 2.0 Mini