Mercury 2.5 vs North Small Translate
Mercury 2.5 comes out ahead, 71 to 50 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
InceptionMercury 2.5
71/100- ECI—
- Price$0.04 / $0.15
- Context260K
CohereNorth Small Translate
50/100- ECI—
- PriceFree / Free
- Context16K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Mercury 2.5 is our pick
Mercury 2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against North Small Translate (50). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMercury 2.5Mercury 2.5 260,000 · North Small Translate 16,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsMercury 2.5: Text · North Small Translate: Text
- Self-hostingNorth Small TranslatePublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
| Measure | Weight | Mercury 2.5 | North Small Translate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 71/100 | 50/100 |
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.04 | Free (best) |
| Output | $0.15 | Free (best) |
| Cached input | $0.004 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.068 | Free (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Official Cohere API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 260,000 tokens (best) | 16,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenCC-BY-NC-4.0 |
| API model ID | mercury-2.5 | north-small-translate-09-2026 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 |
| Released | Sep 8, 2026 | Sep 9, 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
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury 2.5 or North Small Translate?
Mercury 2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against North Small Translate (50). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 or North Small Translate?
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). North Small Translate is listed as free.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mercury 2.5 has not been scored yet and North Small Translate has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury 2.5 and North Small Translate 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?
Mercury 2.5 has the largest context window at 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 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury 2.5 accepts text; North Small Translate accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
North Small Translate 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. 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.
