Mercury 2 vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 12.7 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 4.7x less per output token ($0.75 vs $3.50 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mercury 2 or Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 4.7x cheaper ($0.75 vs $3.50 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 29
- Mercury 2 only
- 13
- Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 only
- 17
- 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.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
No call
Neither has a coding score yet.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 leads, 12.7 against 10.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 leads, 1.6 against 1.3.
Same board, both measured
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507
Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 leads, 1052 against 1035.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 128K tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 $0.0022 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Knowledge, 13.6 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: expert: Mercury 2 1358 against Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 1463, 17.5 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 $3.50 per million output tokens, 4.7x apart.
- Context window
- Both take 128K tokens.
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 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 2 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 1 | 0 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 3 | ||
| Web design | 3 | 3 | ||
| General | 0 | 11 | ||
| All shared boards | 6 | 23 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index22
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | 22.1 | Mercury 2 |
| 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% | 41.0% | Mercury 2 |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | 1424 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1431 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| 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 33 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 12.7 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| 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 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | 1.3 | Mercury 2 |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | Not measured | -$11 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 80.1% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 9.0% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | 1416 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | 1463 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1432 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index3 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 86.7% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1412 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1435 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 11 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.4% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | 1433 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | 1456 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1415 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | 1413 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index33
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1035 | 1052 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Design Arena: UI components | 996 | 942 | Mercury 2 |
| Design Arena: game dev | 983 | 956 | Mercury 2 |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1010 | 950 | Mercury 2 |
| Design Arena: 3D | 982 | 997 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1021 | 1032 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Design Arena: SVG | 997 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 988 | Not measured | 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 index011
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 80.3% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 29.3% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| Fiction.LiveBench | Not measured | 75.0% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| Creative writing (Lech Mazur) | Not measured | 82.4% | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | 1415 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | 1386 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | 1384 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | 1429 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | 1397 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | 1481 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1408 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1386 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1375 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1389 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | 1401 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1390 | Only Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | 1406 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | 1400 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | 1388 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | 1370 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 26 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 | 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 | Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | July 25, 2025 |
| Context window | 128K | 128K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.45 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $3.50 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | Not benchmarked |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 0 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mercury 2 better than Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 4.7x cheaper ($0.75 vs $3.50 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 costs $0.45 and $3.50. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507?
Neither: both take 128K tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507 comparison based on?
29 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3 235B A22B Thinking 2507's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.