Granite 4.0 Micro vs Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads Granite 4.0 Micro on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 10.8 to 5.1, and Granite 4.0 Micro costs 6.7x less per output token ($0.112 vs $0.75 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 7 benchmarks have a result for both.
Granite 4.0 Micro or Mercury 2: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Granite 4.0 Micro for output tokens 6.7x cheaper ($0.112 vs $0.75 per million) and a larger context window (131K against 128K tokens).
- Shared results
- 7
- Granite 4.0 Micro only
- 6
- Mercury 2 only
- 35
- 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
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads, 10.8 against 5.1.
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
No call
Only Mercury 2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1035.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Granite 4.0 Micro
Granite 4.0 Micro takes 131K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Granite 4.0 Micro
Granite 4.0 Micro $0.0001, Mercury 2 $0.0006 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Granite 4.0 Micro not benchmarked, Mercury 2 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 58.2 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- τ²-Bench Telecom: Granite 4.0 Micro 12.6% against Mercury 2 70.8%, 58.2 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Granite 4.0 Micro $0.112 against Mercury 2 $0.75 per million output tokens, 6.7x apart.
- Context window
- Granite 4.0 Micro takes 131K 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 | Granite 4.0 Micro | Bars | Mercury 2 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 1 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 2 | ||
| General | 0 | 2 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index01
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | 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) | 18.0% | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro measured |
| SciCode | Not measured | 37.7% | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 1.5% | 26.5% | Mercury 2 |
| WeirdML | Not measured | 43.2% | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 785.6 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| 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 32 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 5.1 | 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 | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | Not measured | 1.6 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 12.6% | 70.8% | Mercury 2 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 40 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 33.6% | 77.0% | Mercury 2 |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 5.0% | 17.1% | Mercury 2 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 28.3% | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro measured |
| 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 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Math Index | 6.0 | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro measured |
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 6.0% | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 2.8% | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro 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 | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 44.7% | Not measured | Only Granite 4.0 Micro 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 16 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | Not measured | 1035 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | Not measured | 996 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | Not measured | 983 | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | Not measured | 1010 | 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 | 997 | 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 | Granite 4.0 Micro | Mercury 2 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 24.8% | 69.8% | Mercury 2 |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 7.0% | 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 35 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Granite 4.0 Micro | 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
Granite 4.0 Micro costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Granite 4.0 Micro costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Granite 4.0 Micro 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 | IBM Granite 4.0 Micro | Inception Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | IBM Granite | Inception |
| Weights | Open weights | No public weights listed |
| Released | October 20, 2025 | March 4, 2026 |
| Context window | 131K | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.017 | $0.25 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.112 | $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 Granite 4.0 Micro better than Mercury 2 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Granite 4.0 Micro for output tokens 6.7x cheaper ($0.112 vs $0.75 per million) and a larger context window (131K against 128K tokens).
Which is cheaper, Granite 4.0 Micro or Mercury 2?
Granite 4.0 Micro costs $0.017 per million input tokens and $0.112 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, Granite 4.0 Micro or Mercury 2?
Granite 4.0 Micro, with 131K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Granite 4.0 Micro vs Mercury 2 comparison based on?
7 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Granite 4.0 Micro'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.