Mercury 2 vs Hy3 preview
Too close to call on our weighted score (Hy3 preview 56, Mercury 2 53). The right pick depends on what you value most.
InceptionMercury 2
53/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context128K
TencentHy3 preview
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.176 / $0.586
- Context256K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Hy3 preview 56/100, Mercury 2 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hy3 preview on price and Hy3 preview for long inputs. 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 priceHy3 previewHy3 preview $0.279 · Mercury 2 $0.375 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextHy3 previewHy3 preview 256,000 · Mercury 2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsMercury 2: Text · Hy3 preview: Text
- Self-hostingHy3 previewPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mercury 2 | Hy3 preview |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 70 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 24 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 53/100 | 56/100 |
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 2Inception | Hy3 previewTencent |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.25 | $0.176 (best) |
| Output | $0.75 | $0.586 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.025 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.375 | $0.279 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 128,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 50,000 tokens | 64,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | mercury-2 | hy3-preview |
| API providers | 1 | 5 (best) |
| Released | Feb 24, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jan 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$4.00
- Hy3 preview$2.93
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury 2 or Hy3 preview?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Hy3 preview 56/100, Mercury 2 53/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Hy3 preview on price and Hy3 preview for long inputs. 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 or Hy3 preview?
Hy3 preview is cheaper at $0.176 input / $0.586 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers; free on Tencent TokenHub). Mercury 2 costs $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.279 per million tokens for Hy3 preview versus $0.375 for Mercury 2 (1.3× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mercury 2 has not been scored yet and Hy3 preview has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury 2 and Hy3 preview yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Hy3 preview has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 128,000 for Mercury 2. Maximum output per response: Mercury 2 up to 50,000, Hy3 preview up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury 2 accepts text; Hy3 preview accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Hy3 preview publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mercury 2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Hy3 preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Mercury 2 came out Feb 24, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Mercury 2 Jan 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.
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