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Mercury 2 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra

Nemotron 3 Ultra leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 22.9 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 3.2x less per output token ($0.75 vs $2.40 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 38 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Mercury 2 Replace Nemotron 3 Ultra
Mercury 2Inception
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$0.75
0
Nemotron 3 UltraNVIDIA
Coding
30.0
Overall
53.1
Output $/M
$2.40
38
vs boards won of 38 shared

Mercury 2 or Nemotron 3 Ultra: which to pick

Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a coding score, 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 3.2x cheaper ($0.75 vs $2.40 per million).

Model AMercury 2InceptionNot benchmarked1 independent benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BNemotron 3 UltraNVIDIA30.0/1003 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
Shared results
38
Mercury 2 only
4
Nemotron 3 Ultra only
33
Like-for-like categories
7 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.

At a glance

Coding index
Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Nemotron 3 Ultra 30.0 from 3 benchmarks.
Widest category
General, 16.6 points apart on average over 13 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR): Mercury 2 43.7% against Nemotron 3 Ultra 79.3%, 35.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Mercury 2 $0.75 against Nemotron 3 Ultra $2.40 per million output tokens, 3.2x apart.
Context window
Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Nemotron 3 Ultra 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryMercury 2BarsNemotron 3 UltraTies
Coding06
Intelligence01
Agentic work02
Reasoning05
Knowledge03
Web design08
General013
All shared boards038
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index06
Coding benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
LMArena WebDev1171Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
AA Coding Index31.149.3Nemotron 3 Ultra
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)Not measured86.0%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured69.0%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured7.6%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured4.9%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured50.9%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
SciCode37.7%40.3%Nemotron 3 Ultra
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)26.5%36.4%Nemotron 3 Ultra
FrontierCodeNot measured13.6%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
WeirdML43.2%43.5%Nemotron 3 Ultra
ALE-Bench785.6Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
LMArena Text: coding13901468Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: software and IT13851468Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena WebDev: React1160Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
LMArena WebDev: HTML1199Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
AA Intelligence Index10.822.9Nemotron 3 Ultra
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured146.0Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index02
Agentic work benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
AA Agentic Index1.620.1Nemotron 3 Ultra
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured37.7%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured15.4%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured31.7%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
τ²-Bench Telecom70.8%83.3%Nemotron 3 Ultra
APEX-AgentsNot measured22.7%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
MCP AtlasNot measured63.1%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Neither model has a result on the other 35 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Reasoning benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
GPQA DiamondNot measured86.1%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)77.0%86.7%Nemotron 3 Ultra
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)17.1%28.4%Nemotron 3 Ultra
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)Not measured85.4%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Mystery game puzzlesNot measured20.0%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13621452Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: expert13581472Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13741453Nemotron 3 Ultra
Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index4 boards, none shared
Math benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
OTIS Mock AIMENot measured86.7%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
ProofBenchNot measured2.0%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: mathNot measured1457Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: mathematical workNot measured1461Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
Knowledge benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
MMLU ProNot measured85.8%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)Not measured82.1%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured65.5%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured73.1%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured38.6%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: science13431465Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13631456Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: legal and governmentNot measured1452Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: business and finance13491434Nemotron 3 Ultra
Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
Web design benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
Design Arena: websites10351145Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: UI components9961135Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: game dev9831138Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: data viz10101141Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: 3D9821131Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: all code categories10211146Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: SVG9971069Nemotron 3 Ultra
Design Arena: ASCII art9881100Nemotron 3 Ultra
Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index013
General benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
IFBench69.8%81.4%Nemotron 3 Ultra
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)43.7%79.3%Nemotron 3 Ultra
DTBenchNot measured90.1%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMCANot measured36.9%Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text13541445Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: instruction following13281418Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: creative writing12861399Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: English13781455Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: non-English13301427Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: Chinese14141497Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: GermanNot measured1472Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: KoreanNot measured1384Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: FrenchNot measured1472Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: SpanishNot measured1455Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: Russian13041417Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1385Only Nemotron 3 Ultra measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn13571411Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: longer queries13291437Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: writing and language13001406Nemotron 3 Ultra
LMArena Text: entertainment and media13141397Nemotron 3 Ultra
Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
BenchmarkMercury 2Nemotron 3 UltraLeader
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$0.0006Fits in one request
Nemotron 3 Ultra$0.0018Fits in one request

Mercury 2 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Mercury 2$0.015Fits in one request
Nemotron 3 Ultra$0.037Fits in one request

Mercury 2 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Mercury 2$0.058Exceeds the context window
Nemotron 3 Ultra$0.144Fits in one request

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.

Specifications of Mercury 2 and Nemotron 3 Ultra
SpecificationInception Mercury 2NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra
MakerInceptionNVIDIA
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedMarch 4, 2026June 4, 2026
Context window128K262K
Input $/Mtok$0.25$0.60
Output $/Mtok$0.75$2.40
Coding indexNot benchmarked30.0
Independent measurements behind it13
Cost per solved taskNot computableNot computable
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Mercury 2 better than Nemotron 3 Ultra for coding?

Only Nemotron 3 Ultra has a coding score, 30.0 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 3.2x cheaper ($0.75 vs $2.40 per million).

Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Nemotron 3 Ultra costs $0.60 and $2.40. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.

Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Nemotron 3 Ultra?

Nemotron 3 Ultra, with 262K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Nemotron 3 Ultra comparison based on?

38 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Nemotron 3 Ultra's on 3. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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