Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Mercury 2
Gemma 4 26B A4B leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 16.7 to 10.8, and Gemma 4 26B A4B costs 1.3x less per output token ($0.60 vs $0.75 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 34 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mercury 2: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($0.60 vs $0.75 per million) and a larger context window (262K against 128K tokens).
- Shared results
- 34
- Gemma 4 26B A4B only
- 21
- Mercury 2 only
- 8
- 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
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Gemma 4 26B A4B leads, 16.7 against 10.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Gemma 4 26B A4B leads, 2.9 against 1.6.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
No call
Only Mercury 2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1036.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Gemma 4 26B A4B takes 262K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Gemma 4 26B A4B $0.0004, Mercury 2 $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemma 4 26B A4B not benchmarked, Mercury 2 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- General, 15.1 points apart on average over 13 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Gemma 4 26B A4B 1351 against Mercury 2 1160, 31.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemma 4 26B A4B $0.60 against Mercury 2 $0.75 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- Context window
- Gemma 4 26B A4B takes 262K 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 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Bars | Mercury 2 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 8 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 5 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 3 | 0 | ||
| General | 13 | 0 | ||
| All shared boards | 31 | 3 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index82
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1360 | 1171 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| AA Coding Index | 39.3 | 31.1 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| SciCode | 40.0% | 37.7% | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 25.0% | 26.5% | Mercury 2 |
| WeirdML | 35.2% | 43.2% | Mercury 2 |
| ALE-Bench | 927.2 | 785.6 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1446 | 1390 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1454 | 1385 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1351 | 1160 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1362 | 1199 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Neither model has a result on the other 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 16.7 | 10.8 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 141.9 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 2.9 | 1.6 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 43.6% | 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 index50
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 79.2% | 77.0% | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 19.3% | 17.1% | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 73.2% | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1438 | 1362 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1447 | 1358 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1448 | 1374 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1264 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1293 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 82.2% | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: math | 1470 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1475 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index30
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: science | 1446 | 1343 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1428 | 1363 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1457 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1429 | 1349 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 42.7% | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1036 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 996 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 984 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1009 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | Not measured | 982 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | Not measured | 1021 | 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 index130
| Benchmark | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 72.4% | 69.8% | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 65.7% | 43.7% | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| DTBench | 74.9% | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMCA | 29.7% | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text | 1434 | 1354 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1420 | 1328 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1400 | 1286 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Vision | 1260 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1444 | 1378 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1421 | 1330 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1495 | 1414 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: French | 1460 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1415 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1434 | 1304 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1441 | 1357 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1427 | 1329 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1405 | 1300 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1403 | 1314 | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1256 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1312 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1268 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1272 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1297 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1191 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1256 | Not measured | Only Gemma 4 26B A4B 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 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | 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
Gemma 4 26B A4B costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemma 4 26B A4B 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 | Google Gemma 4 26B A4B | Inception Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | April 3, 2026 | March 4, 2026 |
| Context window | 262K | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.15 | $0.25 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.60 | $0.75 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemma 4 26B A4B better than Mercury 2 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Gemma 4 26B A4B for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($0.60 vs $0.75 per million) and a larger context window (262K against 128K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mercury 2?
Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.15 per million input tokens and $0.60 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, Gemma 4 26B A4B or Mercury 2?
Gemma 4 26B A4B, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Mercury 2 comparison based on?
34 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Gemma 4 26B A4B's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Mercury 2's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.