Mercury 2 vs Mistral Large 3 2512
Mercury 2 leads Mistral Large 3 2512 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 10.8 to 9.3, and Mercury 2 costs 2.0x less per output token ($0.75 vs $1.50 per million). Updated October 21, 2026; 12 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mercury 2 or Mistral Large 3 2512: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.50 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: websites or Design Arena: UI components, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 12
- Mercury 2 only
- 30
- Mistral Large 3 2512 only
- 16
- Like-for-like categories
- 4 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 9.3.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads, 1.6 against 1.0.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a GPQA Diamond result, 68.4%.
Directional only
Math
AIME
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a AIME result, 42.9%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has a MMLU Pro result, 79.8%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral Large 3 2512 leads, 1162 against 1036.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Large 3 2512
Mistral Large 3 2512 takes 262K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Mistral Large 3 2512 $0.0013 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Mistral Large 3 2512 has the number, $0.77.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Mistral Large 3 2512 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 14.2 points apart on average over 2 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- ALE-Bench: Mercury 2 785.6 against Mistral Large 3 2512 264.7, 17.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Mistral Large 3 2512 $1.50 per million output tokens, 2.0x apart.
- Context window
- Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Mistral Large 3 2512 262K.
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 | Mercury 2 | Bars | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 0 | ||
| Intelligence | 1 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 1 | 7 | ||
| All shared boards | 5 | 7 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index20
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | 20.1 | Mercury 2 |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.3% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.4% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| SciCode | 37.7% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 26.5% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| WeirdML | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | 264.7 | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1160 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1199 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 9.3 | 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 index10
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | 1.0 | Mercury 2 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index7 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 68.4% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.2% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.0% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.1% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME | Not measured | 42.9% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MGSM (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 79.8% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 79.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | Not measured | 61.4% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 61.0% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 73.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 52.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| MedQA (Vals AI) | Not measured | 82.2% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index17
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1036 | 1162 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 998 | 1102 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 985 | 1080 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1009 | 1136 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 983 | 1100 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1022 | 1142 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 998 | 993 | Mercury 2 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 988 | 1069 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
GeneralDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index16 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 24.6% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| IFBench | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 43.7% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| DTBench | Not measured | 65.1% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 16.7% | Only Mistral Large 3 2512 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 30 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | 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 | Inception Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 3 2512 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | December 1, 2025 |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $1.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 1 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.77 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mercury 2 better than Mistral Large 3 2512 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 2.0x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.50 per million) and work measured by Design Arena: websites or Design Arena: UI components, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Mistral Large 3 2512?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 3 2512 costs $0.50 and $1.50. Cost per solved task is known for Mistral Large 3 2512 only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Mistral Large 3 2512?
Mistral Large 3 2512, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Mistral Large 3 2512 comparison based on?
12 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 21, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Mistral Large 3 2512's on 1. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.