Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

inception · Released Aug 31, 2026 NEW
Intelligence #425 / 756
30.1 our score
Speed
Not reported
Input Price #180 / 798
$0.040 per 1M tokens
Output Price #192 / 798
$0.150 per 1M tokens
Context #353 / 798
260,000 tokens

Analysis Summary

Inception Mercury 2.5 Preview is a text model with a 260,000-token context window, tool use, and function calling. The supplied record contains no reasoning, coding, or agentic benchmark results, making its actual production capability difficult to assess despite the useful interface features.

Its low pricing, $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens, creates a compelling test platform for simple automation, retrieval-based tasks, and early agent prototypes. The preview designation and missing benchmark evidence argue against using it for high-stakes client content, complex coding, or autonomous workflows. Consider it for controlled pilots where cost and long context matter, with a tested fallback model for important outputs.

Assessed September 7, 2026

Editorial notes

Mercury 2.5 Preview offers a 260K context window, tool use, function calling, and very low pricing. It has no benchmark data in the supplied record, so it is better treated as an experimental option than a proven production model.

Rankings consider pricing, capabilities, benchmarks, and real-world applicability and are refreshed as new models launch. Feedback?

DFO Verdict

Mercury 2.5 Preview offers a 260K context window, tool use, function calling, and very low pricing. It has no benchmark data in the supplied record, so it is better treated as an experimental option than a proven production model.

#425 of 756 overall

How Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview compares

Its 260K-token context window is larger than 56% of the models we list. At $0.04 per million input tokens it is cheaper than 77% of comparable models.

Position in the field
Intelligence: smarter than 44% of models #425
Price: cheaper than 77% of models #180
Context: larger than 56% of models #353
worst in fieldmedianbest in field
Price vs frontier peers · $ per 1M tokens
Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview $0.04 in $0.15 out
OpenAI: GPT-6 Astra $10.00 in $50.00 out
Anthropic: Claude Fable 5.1 $10.00 in $50.00 out
Claude Opus 5 $5.00 in $25.00 out

Dark bar = input · light bar = output, scaled to the priciest peer.

Context window vs peers · tokens
Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview 260K

1M tokens ≈ 8 full-length novels or ~2,500 pages of business documents in a single request.

Intelligence0Technical0Value8.3Content4.5
Performance profile

Strongest on value. The pulled-in technical corner is the trade-off, and if the shape matters more than the price, this is your model.

Compare shapes side-by-side →

Pricing

Token Type Cost per 1M tokens Cost per 1K tokens
Input $0.04 $0.000040
Output $0.15 $0.000150

What would Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview cost your business?

Pick the job that looks most like yours, then fine-tune with the sliders. Estimates update live.

A website chatbot handling around 100 customer conversations a day, a few short messages each.

3,000
One request is one message, email, draft or automation call.
1,200 tokens

$0/mo Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

Full calculator with 798 models → Price Calculator

DFO AI AUTOMATION

These numbers get smaller with the right architecture.

We route routine calls to cheap models and save Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview for the hard ones. Most clients cut their estimate by 60-80%.

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About Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 is the fastest reasoning LLM, and the latest diffusion LLM (dLLM) from Inception. Instead of generating tokens sequentially, Mercury 2.5 produces and refines multiple tokens in parallel, achieving..

Frequently asked questions about Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

How much does Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview cost?

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens.

What is the context window of Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview has a context window of 260,000 tokens (260K).

What can Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview do?

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview supports tool use and function calling.

Who created Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview is developed by Inception and was released on August 31, 2026.

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