Mercury 2 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 45.4 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 8.0x less per output token ($0.75 vs $6.00 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 36 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mercury 2 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902): which to pick
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, 62.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 8.0x cheaper ($0.75 vs $6.00 per million).
- Shared results
- 36
- Mercury 2 only
- 6
- Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only
- 77
- 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
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 45.4 against 10.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 56.0 against 1.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a GPQA Diamond result, 93.7%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a MMLU Pro result, 88.6%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) leads, 1275 against 1036.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3.8 Max (0902)
Qwen3.8 Max (0902) takes 1M tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $0.0050 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has the number, $1.32.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 62.4 from 5 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 54.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Mercury 2 1160 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 1692, 73.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Qwen3.8 Max (0902) $6.00 per million output tokens, 8.0x apart.
- Context window
- Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 1M.
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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 7 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 3 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 7 | ||
| General | 0 | 12 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 36 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index07
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 60.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | 1674 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | 76.2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 87.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 34.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 24.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SWE-bench Multimodal (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 42.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SciCode | 37.7% | 53.2% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 26.5% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 17.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| WeirdML | 43.2% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | 1502 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1498 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1160 | 1692 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1199 | 1649 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | Not measured | 1637 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 45.4 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 157.4 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | 56.0 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1300 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building full-stack apps | Not measured | 1305 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1224 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Android apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: agents building Godot games | Not measured | 1234 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: PowerPoint slides | Not measured | 1233 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | Not measured | 967 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 69.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 32.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 42.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 50.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 32.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 60.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Terminal-Bench-Science (Vals AI) | Not measured | 12.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 63.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Search | Not measured | 1261 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 22 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 93.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 88.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MysteryMechanism (Vals AI) | Not measured | 23.9% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 88.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.0% | 92.8% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.1% | 43.1% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 92.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 46.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 38.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | 1496 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | 1507 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | Not measured | 1323 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | Not measured | 1336 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 100.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 74.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 46.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 58.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1501 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1491 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) 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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 88.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 65.8% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.5% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 40.7% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 47.3% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | 1512 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | 1503 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1492 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | 1480 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index07
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1036 | 1275 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: UI components | 996 | 1338 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: game dev | 984 | 1312 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1009 | 1281 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: 3D | 982 | 1336 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1021 | 1293 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| Design Arena: SVG | 998 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 988 | 1200 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 78.6% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index012
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 67.1% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 65.4% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| IFBench | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 43.7% | 80.3% | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| DTBench | Not measured | 92.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 46.2% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 20.0% | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | 1483 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | 1481 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision | Not measured | 1313 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | 1491 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | 1473 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | 1539 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1478 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1473 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1460 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1498 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1489 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | 1482 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1471 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | 1489 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | 1488 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | 1477 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | 1464 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
| LMArena Vision: English | Not measured | 1311 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | Not measured | 1358 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | Not measured | 1322 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | Not measured | 1304 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | Not measured | 1312 | Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | 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 | Qwen3.8 Max (0902) |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | September 3, 2026 |
| Context window | 128K | 1M |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $6.00 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 62.4 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 5 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $1.32 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mercury 2 better than Qwen3.8 Max (0902) for coding?
Only Qwen3.8 Max (0902) has a coding score, 62.4 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 8.0x cheaper ($0.75 vs $6.00 per million).
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Qwen3.8 Max (0902) costs $2.00 and $6.00. Cost per solved task is known for Qwen3.8 Max (0902) only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Qwen3.8 Max (0902)?
Qwen3.8 Max (0902), with 1M tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Qwen3.8 Max (0902) comparison based on?
36 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3.8 Max (0902)'s on 5. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.