Mercury 3 vs Ornith 1.5 35B A3B
Too close to call on our weighted score (Mercury 3 67, Ornith 1.5 35B A3B 66). The right pick depends on what you value most.
InceptionMercury 3
67/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.35
- Context1M
DeepReinforce
Ornith 1.5 35B A3B
66/100- ECI—
- Price$0.10 / $0.40
- Context262K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mercury 3 67/100, Ornith 1.5 35B A3B 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mercury 3 on price and Mercury 3 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 priceMercury 3Mercury 3 $0.163 · Ornith 1.5 35B A3B $0.175 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMercury 3Mercury 3 1,000,000 · Ornith 1.5 35B A3B 262,144 tokens
- Widest inputsOrnith 1.5 35B A3BMercury 3: Text · Ornith 1.5 35B A3B: Text, Images
- Self-hostingOrnith 1.5 35B A3BPublishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Mercury 3 | Ornith 1.5 35B A3B |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 84 | 82 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 45 | 60 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 67/100 | 66/100 |
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 3Inception | Ornith 1.5 35B A3BDeepReinforce |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.10 | $0.10 |
| Output | $0.35 (best) | $0.40 |
| Cached input | $0.01 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.163 (best) | $0.175 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Median of 1 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens |
| Max output | 131,072 tokens | — |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high | Yes |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenMIT |
| API model ID | mercury-3 | — |
| API providers | 3 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Oct 16, 2026 | Aug 18, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mercury 3$1.70
- Ornith 1.5 35B A3B$1.80
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury 3 or Ornith 1.5 35B A3B?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within a point (Mercury 3 67/100, Ornith 1.5 35B A3B 66/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mercury 3 on price and Mercury 3 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 3 or Ornith 1.5 35B A3B?
Mercury 3 is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.35 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). Ornith 1.5 35B A3B costs $0.10 input / $0.40 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.163 per million tokens for Mercury 3 versus $0.175 for Ornith 1.5 35B A3B (1.1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mercury 3 has not been scored yet and Ornith 1.5 35B A3B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury 3 and Ornith 1.5 35B A3B 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?
Mercury 3 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 262,144 for Ornith 1.5 35B A3B. Maximum output per response: Mercury 3 up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury 3 accepts text; Ornith 1.5 35B A3B accepts text and images. Ornith 1.5 35B A3B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Ornith 1.5 35B A3B publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Mercury 3 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mercury 3 is the newest, released Oct 16, 2026. Ornith 1.5 35B A3B came out Aug 18, 2026.
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 Nov 2, 2026.
