Mercury Edit 2 vs Motif 3 vs Seed 2.1 Turbo
Seed 2.1 Turbo comes out ahead, 57 to 44 and 35 on our weighted score, though Mercury Edit 2 is 2.4× cheaper per token.
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
Motif Technologies
Motif 3
44/100- ECI—
- Price$0.50 / $2.00
- Context262K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 2.1 Turbo
57/100- ECI—
- Price$0.445 / $2.23
- Context256K
Seed 2.1 Turbo is our pick
Seed 2.1 Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Motif 3 (44) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features. Mercury Edit 2 wins 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 priceMercury Edit 2Mercury Edit 2 $0.375 · Motif 3 $0.875 · Seed 2.1 Turbo $0.891 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMotif 3Motif 3 262,144 · Seed 2.1 Turbo 256,000 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 2.1 TurboMercury Edit 2: Text · Motif 3: Text · Seed 2.1 Turbo: Text, Images, Video
- Self-hostingMotif 3Publishes downloadable weights (MIT)
| Measure | Weight | Mercury Edit 2 | Motif 3 | Seed 2.1 Turbo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 70 | 53 | 52 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 35 | 80 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 37 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 35/100 | 44/100 | 57/100 |
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 Edit 2Inception | Motif 3Motif Technologies | Seed 2.1 TurboByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.25 (best) | $0.50 | $0.445 |
| Output | $0.75 (best) | $2.00 | $2.23 |
| Cached input | $0.025 (best) | — | $0.089 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.375 (best) | $0.875 | $0.891 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Median of 1 providers | Official Volcengine Ark API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 32,000 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 256,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | Yes |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | OpenMIT | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mercury-edit-2 | — | doubao-seed-2-1-turbo-260628 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 | 4 (best) |
| Released | Mar 30, 2026 | Aug 7, 2026 | Jun 23, 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 Edit 2$4.00
- Motif 3$9.00
- Seed 2.1 Turbo$8.91
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury Edit 2, Motif 3 or Seed 2.1 Turbo?
Seed 2.1 Turbo is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against Motif 3 (44) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features. Mercury Edit 2 wins 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 Edit 2, Motif 3 or Seed 2.1 Turbo?
Mercury Edit 2 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). Motif 3 costs $0.50 input / $2.00 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider); Seed 2.1 Turbo costs $0.445 input / $2.23 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.375 per million tokens for Mercury Edit 2 versus $0.875 for Motif 3 (2.3× as much) and $0.891 for Seed 2.1 Turbo (2.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet, Motif 3 has not been scored yet and Seed 2.1 Turbo has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury Edit 2, Motif 3 and Seed 2.1 Turbo yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that Mercury Edit 2 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Motif 3 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 256,000 for Seed 2.1 Turbo and 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192, Motif 3 up to 262,144, Seed 2.1 Turbo up to 256,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury Edit 2 accepts text; Motif 3 accepts text; Seed 2.1 Turbo accepts text, images and video. Seed 2.1 Turbo handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Motif 3 publishes its weights (MIT) and can be self-hosted; Mercury Edit 2 and Seed 2.1 Turbo is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Motif 3 is the newest, released Aug 7, 2026. Seed 2.1 Turbo came out Jun 23, 2026; Mercury Edit 2 came out Mar 30, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
