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Mercury 2 vs Inkling Small

Inkling Small leads Mercury 2 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, 25.7 to 10.8, and Mercury 2 costs 1.6x less per output token ($0.75 vs $1.20 per million). Updated October 22, 2026; 29 benchmarks have a result for both.

Replace Mercury 2 Replace Inkling Small
Mercury 2Inception
Coding
No data
Overall
No data
Output $/M
$0.75
0
T Inkling SmallThinking Machines
Coding
27.3
Overall
43.6
Output $/M
$1.20
29
vs boards won of 29 shared

Mercury 2 or Inkling Small: which to pick

Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding.

Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.20 per million).

Model AMercury 2InceptionNot benchmarked1 independent benchmarkNo cost per solved taskModel BInkling SmallThinking Machines27.3/1004 independent benchmarks$0.16 per solved task
Shared results
29
Mercury 2 only
13
Inkling Small only
55
Like-for-like categories
6 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, Inkling Small 27.3 from 4 benchmarks.
Widest category
Coding, 22.4 points apart on average over 7 shared benchmarks.
Widest single gap
LMArena WebDev: React: Mercury 2 1160 against Inkling Small 1399, 39.9 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
Output price
Mercury 2 $0.75 against Inkling Small $1.20 per million output tokens, 1.6x apart.
Context window
Mercury 2 takes 128K tokens, Inkling Small 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.

Boards won, where both have a result
CategoryMercury 2BarsInkling SmallTies
Coding07
Intelligence01
Agentic work01
Reasoning05
Knowledge03
General012
All shared boards029
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index07
Coding benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
LMArena WebDev11711409Inkling Small
AA Coding Index31.152.9Inkling Small
LiveCodeBench (Vals AI)Not measured85.9%Only Inkling Small measured
SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI)Not measured82.2%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI)Not measured0.0%Only Inkling Small measured
Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI)Not measured19.1%Only Inkling Small measured
Code migration (Vals AI)Not measured13.7%Only Inkling Small measured
ProgramBench (Vals AI)Not measured0.5%Only Inkling Small measured
IOI (Vals AI)Not measured9.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (Vals AI)Not measured55.1%Only Inkling Small measured
SkillsBench (Vals AI)Not measured33.6%Only Inkling Small measured
CyberBench (Vals AI)Not measured64.1%Only Inkling Small measured
SciCode37.7%49.7%Inkling Small
Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run)26.5%Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
WeirdML43.2%Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
ALE-Bench785.6Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
LMArena Text: coding13901450Inkling Small
LMArena Text: software and IT13851447Inkling Small
LMArena WebDev: React11601399Inkling Small
LMArena WebDev: HTML11991398Inkling Small
LMArena WebDev: from an imageNot measured1410Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 18 boards here
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Intelligence benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
AA Intelligence Index10.825.7Inkling Small
Epoch Capabilities IndexNot measured150.3Only Inkling Small measured
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
Agentic work benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
AA Agentic Index1.623.5Inkling Small
Finance Agent (Vals AI)Not measured41.3%Only Inkling Small measured
Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI)Not measured15.4%Only Inkling Small measured
Legal Research Bench (Vals AI)Not measured25.5%Only Inkling Small measured
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured2.9%Only Inkling Small measured
Excel Modeling Benchmark (Vals AI)Not measured31.8%Only Inkling Small measured
τ²-Bench Telecom70.8%Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
Reasoning benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
GPQA DiamondNot measured83.6%Only Inkling Small measured
GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run)77.0%89.5%Inkling Small
Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run)17.1%33.3%Inkling Small
GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run)Not measured88.5%Only Inkling Small measured
ARC-AGINot measured84.0%Only Inkling Small measured
ARC-AGI-2Not measured40.1%Only Inkling Small measured
Mystery game puzzlesNot measured6.0%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: hard prompts13621423Inkling Small
LMArena Text: expert13581441Inkling Small
LMArena Text: hard prompts in English13741429Inkling Small
LMArena Vision: diagramsNot measured1251Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: homeworkNot measured1257Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 10 boards here
MathDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index6 boards, none shared
Math benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
OTIS Mock AIMENot measured90.0%Only Inkling Small measured
FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3Not measured46.3%Only Inkling Small measured
FrontierMath, tier 4Not measured17.1%Only Inkling Small measured
ProofBenchNot measured6.0%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: mathNot measured1459Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: mathematical workNot measured1441Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index03
Knowledge benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
MMLU ProNot measured85.6%Only Inkling Small measured
LegalBench (Vals AI)Not measured83.0%Only Inkling Small measured
CorpFin (Vals AI)Not measured69.6%Only Inkling Small measured
TaxEval (Vals AI)Not measured75.5%Only Inkling Small measured
MortgageTax (Vals AI)Not measured62.3%Only Inkling Small measured
MedCode (Vals AI)Not measured37.9%Only Inkling Small measured
SimpleQA VerifiedNot measured19.1%Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: science13431428Inkling Small
LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare13631413Inkling Small
LMArena Text: legal and governmentNot measured1415Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: business and finance13491413Inkling Small
Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here
Web designDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index8 boards, none shared
Web design benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
Design Arena: websites1036Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: UI components996Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: game dev984Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: data viz1009Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: 3D982Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: all code categories1021Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: SVG998Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Design Arena: ASCII art988Not measuredOnly 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 index012
General benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
Vals IndexNot measured27.6%Only Inkling Small measured
Public Benefits Bench (Vals AI)Not measured59.4%Only Inkling Small measured
SAGE (Vals AI)Not measured32.7%Only Inkling Small measured
MedScribe (Vals AI)Not measured84.1%Only Inkling Small measured
Vals Multimodal IndexNot measured50.0%Only Inkling Small measured
IFBench69.8%Not measuredOnly Mercury 2 measured
Long context reasoning (AA-LCR)43.7%75.7%Inkling Small
LMArena Text13541413Inkling Small
LMArena Text: instruction following13281399Inkling Small
LMArena Text: creative writing12861334Inkling Small
LMArena VisionNot measured1237Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: English13781421Inkling Small
LMArena Text: non-English13301401Inkling Small
LMArena Text: Chinese14141464Inkling Small
LMArena Text: GermanNot measured1408Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: JapaneseNot measured1401Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: KoreanNot measured1367Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: FrenchNot measured1435Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: SpanishNot measured1422Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: Russian13041394Inkling Small
LMArena Text: PolishNot measured1428Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Text: multi-turn13571416Inkling Small
LMArena Text: longer queries13291402Inkling Small
LMArena Text: writing and language13001357Inkling Small
LMArena Text: entertainment and media13141352Inkling Small
LMArena Vision: EnglishNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: ChineseNot measured1292Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: reading textNot measured1243Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: humorNot measured1207Only Inkling Small measured
LMArena Vision: creative writingNot measured1205Only Inkling Small measured
Neither model has a result on the other 16 boards here
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
Image generation benchmarks for Mercury 2 and Inkling Small
BenchmarkMercury 2Inkling SmallLeader
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
Inkling Small$0.0010Fits in one request

Mercury 2 costs less

Repository review

50K input + 3K output tokens

Mercury 2$0.015Fits in one request
Inkling Small$0.026Fits in one request

Mercury 2 costs less

Agent loop

200K input + 10K output tokens

Mercury 2$0.058Exceeds the context window
Inkling Small$0.102Fits 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 Inkling Small
SpecificationInception Mercury 2Thinking Machines Inkling Small
MakerInceptionThinking Machines
WeightsNo public weights listedOpen weights
ReleasedMarch 4, 2026July 30, 2026
Context window128K524K
Input $/Mtok$0.25$0.45
Output $/Mtok$0.75$1.20
Coding indexNot benchmarked27.3
Independent measurements behind it14
Cost per solved taskNot computable$0.16
SourceOpenRouter listingOpenRouter listing

Questions

Is Mercury 2 better than Inkling Small for coding?

Only Inkling Small has a coding score, 27.3 on the Vibe Coding Index; Mercury 2 has none, so the two cannot be ranked on coding. Pick Mercury 2 for output tokens 1.6x cheaper ($0.75 vs $1.20 per million).

Which is cheaper, Mercury 2 or Inkling Small?

Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per million input tokens and $0.75 per million output tokens; Inkling Small costs $0.45 and $1.20. Cost per solved task is known for Inkling Small only.

Which has the bigger context window, Mercury 2 or Inkling Small?

Inkling Small, with 524K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks is the Mercury 2 vs Inkling Small 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 Inkling Small's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.

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