Nova Premier 1.0 vs Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads Nova Premier 1.0 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 10.8 to 9.2, and Mercury 2 costs 16.7x less per output token ($0.75 vs $12.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 9 benchmarks have a result for both.
Nova Premier 1.0 or Mercury 2: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Nova Premier 1.0 for a larger context window (1M against 128K tokens) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 9
- Nova Premier 1.0 only
- 5
- Mercury 2 only
- 33
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads, 10.8 against 9.2.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Mercury 2 has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads, 1036 against 835.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Nova Premier 1.0
Nova Premier 1.0 takes 1M tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Nova Premier 1.0 $0.0088, Mercury 2 $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Nova Premier 1.0 not benchmarked, Mercury 2 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 32.5 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- IFBench: Nova Premier 1.0 36.2% against Mercury 2 69.8%, 33.6 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Nova Premier 1.0 $12.50 against Mercury 2 $0.75 per million output tokens, 16.7x apart.
- Context window
- Nova Premier 1.0 takes 1M tokens, Mercury 2 128K.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Nova Premier 1.0 | Bars | Mercury 2 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 9 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index02
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | Not measured | 1171 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | Not measured | 31.1 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 31.7% | Not measured | Only Nova Premier 1.0 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 37.7% | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 6.8% | 26.5% | Mercury 2 |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 43.2% | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 147.4 | 785.6 | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text: coding | Not measured | 1390 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | Not measured | 1385 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1160 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | Not measured | 1199 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 9.2 | 10.8 | Mercury 2 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 1.6 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 38.3% | 70.8% | Mercury 2 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 56.9% | 77.0% | Mercury 2 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 4.2% | 17.1% | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | Not measured | 1362 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | Not measured | 1358 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | Not measured | 1374 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 44.8% | Not measured | Only Nova Premier 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 17.3 | Not measured | Only Nova Premier 1.0 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.3% | Not measured | Only Nova Premier 1.0 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 73.3% | Not measured | Only Nova Premier 1.0 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | Not measured | 1343 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | Not measured | 1363 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | Not measured | 1349 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 835 | 1036 | Mercury 2 |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 998 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 985 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1009 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 983 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1022 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | Not measured | 998 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | Not measured | 988 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 36.2% | 69.8% | Mercury 2 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 34.3% | 43.7% | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text | Not measured | 1354 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | Not measured | 1328 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | Not measured | 1286 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | Not measured | 1378 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | Not measured | 1330 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | Not measured | 1414 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | Not measured | 1304 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | Not measured | 1357 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | Not measured | 1329 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | Not measured | 1300 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | Not measured | 1314 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Nova Premier 1.0 | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mercury 2 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mercury 2 costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Amazon Nova Premier 1.0 | Inception Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Amazon | Inception |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 31, 2025 | March 4, 2026 |
| Context window | 1M | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.50 | $0.25 |
| Output $/Mtok | $12.50 | $0.75 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 0 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Nova Premier 1.0 better than Mercury 2 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Nova Premier 1.0 for a larger context window (1M against 128K tokens) and work measured by Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) or ALE-Bench, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Nova Premier 1.0 or Mercury 2?
Nova Premier 1.0 costs $2.50 per million input tokens and $12.50 per million output tokens; Mercury 2 costs $0.25 and $0.75. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Nova Premier 1.0 or Mercury 2?
Nova Premier 1.0, with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Nova Premier 1.0 vs Mercury 2 comparison based on?
9 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Nova Premier 1.0's coding index rests on 0 independent benchmarks and Mercury 2's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.