DeepSeek V3.2 vs Mercury 2.5
DeepSeek V3.2 leads Mercury 2.5 on coding, 30.0 to 1.6 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Mercury 2.5 costs 5.9x less per output token ($0.15 vs $0.88 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 5 benchmarks have a result for both.
DeepSeek V3.2 or Mercury 2.5: which to pick
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 for coding: it scores 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 1.6 for Mercury 2.5.
Pick Mercury 2.5 for output tokens 5.9x cheaper ($0.15 vs $0.88 per million) and a larger context window (260K against 164K tokens).
- Shared results
- 5
- DeepSeek V3.2 only
- 70
- Mercury 2.5 only
- 17
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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
DeepSeek V3.2
DeepSeek V3.2 scores 30.0 against 1.6.
3 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
DeepSeek V3.2
DeepSeek V3.2 leads, 21.5 against 12.3.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has a GPQA Diamond result, 80.3%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has a AIME result, 84.6%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has a MMLU Pro result, 84.9%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1175.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Mercury 2.5
Mercury 2.5 takes 260K tokens against 164K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2.5
DeepSeek V3.2 $0.0007, Mercury 2.5 $0.0001 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only DeepSeek V3.2 has the number, $0.99.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- DeepSeek V3.2 30.0 from 3 benchmarks, Mercury 2.5 1.6 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Reasoning, 12.8 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run): DeepSeek V3.2 24.6% against Mercury 2.5 11.8%, 12.8 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- DeepSeek V3.2 $0.88 against Mercury 2.5 $0.15 per million output tokens, 5.9x apart.
- Context window
- DeepSeek V3.2 takes 164K tokens, Mercury 2.5 260K.
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 | DeepSeek V3.2 | Bars | Mercury 2.5 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 1 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 1 | ||
| General | 1 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 1 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index10
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 70.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SWE-bench Multilingual | 59.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1362 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 44.2 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | 80.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 67.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 5.1% | 3.7% | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 4.5% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.4% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.5% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.1% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.5% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 38.5% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 35.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 39.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 301.6 | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1453 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1449 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1350 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1371 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 21.5 | 12.3 | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 146.1 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 18.9% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 2.5% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 4.3% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 8.8% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 90.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | 21.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $1,034 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 33 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 80.3% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 24.6% | 11.8% | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| ARC-AGI | 57.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1434 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1436 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1446 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | 84.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | 86.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| AA Math Index | 92.0 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 92.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 3.0% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1435 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1440 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | 84.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | 76.1% | 83.1% | Mercury 2.5 |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 55.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 51.0% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | 68.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | 93.9% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.3% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1446 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1440 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1425 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1410 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 6 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1175 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1149 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1132 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1158 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1133 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1164 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 1032 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 1083 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.3% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.1% | Only Mercury 2.5 measured |
| IFBench | 60.7% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 73.3% | 71.7% | DeepSeek V3.2 |
| DTBench | 85.6% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMCA | 28.8% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| CL-bench | 12.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| CL-bench Life | 7.4% | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1425 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1413 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1400 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1439 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1409 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1455 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: German | 1413 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1374 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1370 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1429 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1424 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1424 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1419 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1427 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1428 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1407 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1395 | Not measured | Only DeepSeek V3.2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 21 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | DeepSeek V3.2 | Mercury 2.5 | 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 2.5 costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Mercury 2.5 costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Mercury 2.5 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 | DeepSeek V3.2 | Inception Mercury 2.5 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | DeepSeek | Inception |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | December 1, 2025 | September 8, 2026 |
| Context window | 164K | 260K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.29 | $0.04 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.88 | $0.15 |
| Coding index | 30.0 | 1.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.99 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is DeepSeek V3.2 better than Mercury 2.5 for coding?
Pick DeepSeek V3.2 for coding: it scores 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index against 1.6 for Mercury 2.5. Pick Mercury 2.5 for output tokens 5.9x cheaper ($0.15 vs $0.88 per million) and a larger context window (260K against 164K tokens).
Which is cheaper, DeepSeek V3.2 or Mercury 2.5?
DeepSeek V3.2 costs $0.29 per million input tokens and $0.88 per million output tokens; Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04 and $0.15. Cost per solved task is known for DeepSeek V3.2 only.
Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek V3.2 or Mercury 2.5?
Mercury 2.5, with 260K tokens against 164K.
How many benchmarks is the DeepSeek V3.2 vs Mercury 2.5 comparison based on?
5 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. DeepSeek V3.2's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Mercury 2.5's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.