Mercury 2 vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 11.2 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 1.6x less per output token ($0.75 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 21 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mercury 2 or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking: which to pick
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.20 per million) and work measured by LMArena Text: coding or LMArena Text: software and IT, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 21
- Mercury 2 only
- 21
- Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking only
- 9
- Like-for-like categories
- 5 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking leads, 11.2 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
No call
Only Mercury 2 has a Design Arena: websites result, 1036.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking takes 262K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking $0.0008 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking not benchmarked.
- Widest category
- Coding, 5.1 points apart on average over 3 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- AA Coding Index: Mercury 2 31.1 against Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 17.4, 13.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking $1.20 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
- Context window
- Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 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 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 2 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 3 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 3 | ||
| General | 3 | 8 | ||
| All shared boards | 4 | 17 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index12
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | 17.4 | 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% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | 1392 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1393 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| 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 29 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 11.2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| Neither model has a result on the other 1 board here | |||
Agentic workDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking | 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 |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | 1371 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | 1376 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1384 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| Neither model has a result on the other 17 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1399 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1390 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | 1384 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | 1392 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1364 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | 1360 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| Neither model has a result on the other 14 boards here | |||
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1036 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: UI components | 996 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 984 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1009 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 982 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1021 | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Design Arena: SVG | 998 | 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 index38
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| IFBench | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 43.7% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | 1368 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | 1344 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | 1314 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | 1392 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | 1342 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | 1407 | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1356 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1280 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1310 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1351 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1358 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | 1337 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1345 | Only Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | 1346 | Mercury 2 |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | 1353 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | 1330 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | 1312 | Mercury 2 |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking | 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
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Qwen |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | September 11, 2025 |
| Context window | 128K | 262K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.15 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $1.20 |
| 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking for coding?
Neither model has a coding score yet, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.20 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 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking costs $0.15 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking?
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking, with 262K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking comparison based on?
21 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking's on 0. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.