Mercury 2 vs Mistral Large 4
Updated October 21, 2026. 35 benchmarks have a result for both. Coding is ranked on the Vibe Coding Index; every other board is shown as published.
Decision reading
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 55.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 0.0 for Mercury 2.
Pick Mercury 2 when output tokens cost 5.6x less.
- Shared results
- 35
- Mercury 2 only
- 7
- Mistral Large 4 only
- 46
- Like-for-like categories
- 6 of 9
Shared results can support a head-to-head reading. Results only one model has describe coverage, not superiority.
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, four public coding benchmarks
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 scores 55.3 against 0.0.
1 and 2 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 38.4 against 10.8.
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
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 leads, 1258 against 1036.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Mistral Large 4
Mistral Large 4 takes 1.05M tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Mistral Large 4 $0.0034 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 0.0 from 1 benchmark, Mistral Large 4 55.3 from 2 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 31.8 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Mercury 2 1160 against Mistral Large 4 1559, 66.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Mistral Large 4 $4.18 per million output tokens, 5.6x apart.
- Context window
- Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Mistral Large 4 1.05M.
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 4 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 7 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 4 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 3 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 8 | ||
| General | 0 | 12 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 35 |
CodingLike-for-likeFour of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index07
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 60.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | 1543 | Mistral Large 4 |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 27.8% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.6% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 45.3% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 33.1% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.3% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SciCode | 37.7% | 54.2% | Mistral Large 4 |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 26.5% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 39.4% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| WeirdML | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | 1213.2 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | 1478 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1467 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1160 | 1559 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1199 | 1487 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 20 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 38.4 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 150.0 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index11 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 28.1% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 8.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 54.7% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 30.4% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 31.7% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.5% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 56.2% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| BioMysteryBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index04
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 83.9% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.2% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.0% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.1% | 35.0% | Mistral Large 4 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.1% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 33.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 17.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | 1444 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | 1444 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1442 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1288 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 98.3% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 58.6% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 26.8% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 10.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1469 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1462 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.7% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | 1448 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | 1433 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1425 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | 1439 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1036 | 1258 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 998 | 1275 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 985 | 1226 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1009 | 1274 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 982 | 1253 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1022 | 1259 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 998 | 1232 | Mistral Large 4 |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 990 | 1203 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 65.6% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index012
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 76.5% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 80.4% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| IFBench | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 43.7% | 81.3% | Mistral Large 4 |
| DTBench | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 35.8% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Surface Evolver Bench | Not measured | 28.1% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 20.8% | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | 1431 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | 1422 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | 1363 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1272 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | 1433 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | 1422 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | 1492 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1415 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1492 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1455 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | 1417 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | 1435 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | 1428 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | 1386 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | 1378 | Mistral Large 4 |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1283 | Only Mistral Large 4 measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1284 | Only Mistral Large 4 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 | Mercury 2 | Mistral Large 4 | 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 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Mistral AI |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | October 6, 2026 |
| Context window | 128K | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $1.36 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $4.18 |
| Coding index | 0.0 | 55.3 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 2 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mercury 2 better than Mistral Large 4 for coding?
Pick Mistral Large 4 for coding: it scores 55.3 on the Vibe Coding Index against 0.0 for Mercury 2. Pick Mercury 2 when output tokens cost 5.6x less.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Mistral Large 4?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Mistral Large 4 costs $1.36 and $4.18. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Mistral Large 4?
Mistral Large 4, with 1.05M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Mistral Large 4 comparison based on?
35 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 4's on 2. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.