Mercury 2.5 vs North Small Translate vs Laguna XS 2.1
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mercury 2.5 71, Laguna XS 2.1 68, North Small Translate 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.
InceptionMercury 2.5
71/100- ECI—
- Price$0.04 / $0.15
- Context260K
CohereNorth Small Translate
50/100- ECI—
- PriceFree / Free
- Context16K
PoolsideLaguna XS 2.1
68/100- ECI—
- Price$0.06 / $0.12
- Context262K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Mercury 2.5 71/100, Laguna XS 2.1 68/100, North Small Translate 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: North Small Translate on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
- CapabilityNot enough dataNo independent benchmark covers every model here yet
- Lowest priceNorth Small TranslateNorth Small Translate Free · Mercury 2.5 $0.068 · Laguna XS 2.1 $0.075 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextLaguna XS 2.1 and Mercury 2.5Laguna XS 2.1 262,144 · Mercury 2.5 260,000 · North Small Translate 16,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsMercury 2.5: Text · North Small Translate: Text · Laguna XS 2.1: Text
- Self-hostingNorth Small Translate and Laguna XS 2.1Publishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Mercury 2.5 | North Small Translate | Laguna XS 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 0 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 0 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 50/100 | 68/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Mercury 2.5Inception | North Small TranslateCohere | Laguna XS 2.1Poolside |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.04 | Free (best) | $0.06 |
| Output | $0.15 | Free (best) | $0.12 |
| Cached input | $0.004 | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.068 | Free (best) | $0.075 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Official Cohere API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 260,000 tokens | 16,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,000 tokens | 32,768 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | No | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 | Open |
| API model ID | mercury-2.5 | north-small-translate-09-2026 | poolside/laguna-xs-2.1 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 4 (best) |
| Released | Sep 8, 2026 | Sep 9, 2026 | Jul 2, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Nov 1, 2025 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mercury 2.5$0.70
- North Small TranslateFree
- Laguna XS 2.1$0.84
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury 2.5, North Small Translate or Laguna XS 2.1?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Mercury 2.5 71/100, Laguna XS 2.1 68/100, North Small Translate 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: North Small Translate on price. The score weighs price 50%, inputs & features 30%, context window 20%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.
Which is cheaper, Mercury 2.5, North Small Translate or Laguna XS 2.1?
North Small Translate is cheaper at Free input / Free output per million tokens (official Cohere API price). Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Inception API price); Laguna XS 2.1 costs $0.06 input / $0.12 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider; free on Poolside). North Small Translate is listed as free.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mercury 2.5 has not been scored yet, North Small Translate has not been scored yet and Laguna XS 2.1 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury 2.5, North Small Translate and Laguna XS 2.1 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that North Small Translate does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Laguna XS 2.1 and Mercury 2.5 have the largest context windows (262,144 and 260,000 tokens), against 16,000 for North Small Translate. Maximum output per response: Mercury 2.5 up to 65,536, North Small Translate up to 16,000, Laguna XS 2.1 up to 32,768 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury 2.5 accepts text; North Small Translate accepts text; Laguna XS 2.1 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
North Small Translate and Laguna XS 2.1 publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Mercury 2.5 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
North Small Translate is the newest, released Sep 9, 2026. Mercury 2.5 came out Sep 8, 2026; Laguna XS 2.1 came out Jul 2, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Mercury 2.5 Nov 1, 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
