Mercury 2 vs Inkling
Inkling leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.0 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 5.4x less per output token ($0.75 vs $4.05 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 39 benchmarks have a result for both.
Mercury 2 or Inkling: which to pick
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.
Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 5.4x cheaper ($0.75 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by WeirdML, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 39
- Mercury 2 only
- 3
- Inkling only
- 63
- 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 Inkling has a coding score, so no call is made.
One side not measured
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 25.0 against 10.8.
Same board, both measured
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
Inkling
Inkling leads, 22.5 against 1.6.
Same board, both measured
Reasoning
GPQA Diamond
No call
Only Inkling has a GPQA Diamond result, 87.1%.
Directional only
Knowledge
MMLU Pro
No call
Only Inkling has a MMLU Pro result, 86.3%.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Inkling
Inkling leads, 1224 against 1036.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Inkling has a Vals Index result, 29.0%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
Inkling
Inkling takes 524K tokens against 128K.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 $0.0006, Inkling $0.0030 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Inkling has the number, $0.76.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Mercury 2 not benchmarked, Inkling 31.5 from 6 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 20.9 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena WebDev: React: Mercury 2 1160 against Inkling 1404, 40.7 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Mercury 2 $0.75 against Inkling $4.05 per million output tokens, 5.4x apart.
- Context window
- Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Inkling 524K.
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 | Inkling | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 1 | 8 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 3 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 8 | ||
| General | 0 | 12 | ||
| All shared boards | 1 | 38 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index18
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1171 | 1414 | Inkling |
| AA Coding Index | 31.1 | 52.1 | Inkling |
| LiveCodeBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | Not measured | 77.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 19.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| Code migration (Vals AI) | Not measured | 11.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProgramBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| IOI (Vals AI) | Not measured | 14.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 47.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vibe Code Bench 1-100 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 7.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| SkillsBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 26.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| CyberBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 66.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| SciCode | 37.7% | 47.0% | Inkling |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 26.5% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| FrontierCode | Not measured | 14.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 4.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| WeirdML | 43.2% | 32.3% | Mercury 2 |
| ALE-Bench | 785.6 | 946.0 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1390 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1385 | 1465 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1160 | 1404 | Inkling |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1199 | 1399 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 15 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 10.8 | 25.0 | Inkling |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | Not measured | 148.4 | Only Inkling measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | 22.5 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: agents building web apps | Not measured | 1196 | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 59.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 16.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 14.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| SREBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Finance Agent (Vals AI) | Not measured | 46.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 15.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 28.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 3.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 38.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 70.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 33.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | Not measured | 87.1% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 78.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MMMU Pro (Vals AI) | Not measured | 78.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 77.0% | 87.2% | Inkling |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 17.1% | 31.9% | Inkling |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | Not measured | 88.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI | Not measured | 79.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 50.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 21.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1362 | 1451 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1358 | 1466 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1374 | 1448 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 9 boards here | |||
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | Not measured | 88.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | Not measured | 33.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | Not measured | 4.9% | Only Inkling measured |
| ProofBench | Not measured | 0.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1479 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | Not measured | 1460 | Only Inkling 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 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| MMLU Pro | Not measured | 86.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LegalBench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 83.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | Not measured | 68.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| TaxEval (Vals AI) | Not measured | 75.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | Not measured | 64.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | Not measured | 41.2% | Only Inkling measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 40.3% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1343 | 1455 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1363 | 1447 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | Not measured | 1448 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1349 | 1438 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index08
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1036 | 1224 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: UI components | 996 | 1198 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: game dev | 984 | 1165 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1009 | 1156 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: 3D | 982 | 1160 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1021 | 1205 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: SVG | 998 | 1108 | Inkling |
| Design Arena: ASCII art | 988 | 1089 | Inkling |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 58.3% | Only Inkling measured |
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index012
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 29.0% | Only Inkling measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 72.8% | Only Inkling measured |
| Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 58.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| SAGE (Vals AI) | Not measured | 36.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | Not measured | 85.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| Vals Multimodal Index | Not measured | 49.4% | Only Inkling measured |
| IFBench | 69.8% | Not measured | Only Mercury 2 measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 43.7% | 77.3% | Inkling |
| DTBench | Not measured | 87.5% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMCA | Not measured | 37.6% | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text | 1354 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1328 | 1425 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1286 | 1390 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: English | 1378 | 1442 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1330 | 1434 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1414 | 1493 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: German | Not measured | 1445 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | Not measured | 1429 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | Not measured | 1403 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1455 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1449 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1304 | 1430 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: Polish | Not measured | 1450 | Only Inkling measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1357 | 1437 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1329 | 1435 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1300 | 1404 | Inkling |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1314 | 1394 | Inkling |
| Neither model has a result on the other 19 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Mercury 2 | Inkling | 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 | Thinking Machines Inkling |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Inception | Thinking Machines |
| Weights | No public weights listed | Open weights |
| Released | March 4, 2026 | July 17, 2026 |
| Context window | 128K | 524K |
| Input $/Mtok | $0.25 | $0.975 |
| Output $/Mtok | $0.75 | $4.05 |
| Coding index | Not benchmarked | 31.5 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 1 | 6 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | $0.76 |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Mercury 2 better than Inkling for coding?
Only Inkling has a coding score, 31.5 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 5.4x cheaper ($0.75 vs $4.05 per million) and work measured by WeirdML, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Inkling?
Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Inkling costs $0.975 and $4.05. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling only.
Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Inkling?
Inkling, with 524K tokens against 128K.
How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Inkling comparison based on?
39 benchmarks have a result for both models as of October 22, 2026. Mercury 2's coding index rests on 1 independent benchmark and Inkling's on 6. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.