Mercury Edit 2 vs Seed 1.8
Seed 1.8 comes out ahead, 63 to 35 on our weighted score.
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.8
63/100- ECI—
- Price$0.119 / $1.19
- Context256K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Seed 1.8 is our pick
Seed 1.8 is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (35). 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 priceMercury Edit 2Mercury Edit 2 $0.375 · Seed 1.8 $0.386 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextSeed 1.8Seed 1.8 256,000 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.8Mercury Edit 2: Text · Seed 1.8: Text, Images
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Mercury Edit 2 | Seed 1.8 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 70 | 69 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 0 | 70 |
| Context window | 20% | 0 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 35/100 | 63/100 |
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 | Seed 1.8ByteDance Seed |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.25 | $0.119 (best) |
| Output | $0.75 (best) | $1.19 |
| Cached input | $0.025 | $0.024 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.375 (best) | $0.386 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Over 32K: $0.178 / $2.37 |
| Price source | Official Inception API | Official Volcengine Ark API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 32,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 8,192 tokens | 64,000 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yesminimal · low · medium · high · xhigh · max |
| Tool calling | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | Yes |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | mercury-edit-2 | doubao-seed-1-8-251228 |
| API providers | 1 | 2 (best) |
| Released | Mar 30, 2026 | Dec 28, 2025 |
| 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
- Seed 1.8$3.56
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mercury Edit 2 or Seed 1.8?
Seed 1.8 is the better all-round choice, scoring 63/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (35). 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 Edit 2 or Seed 1.8?
Mercury Edit 2 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). Seed 1.8 costs $0.119 input / $1.19 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 $0.386 for Seed 1.8 (1× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet and Seed 1.8 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Mercury Edit 2 and Seed 1.8 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?
Seed 1.8 has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192, Seed 1.8 up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mercury Edit 2 accepts text; Seed 1.8 accepts text and images. Seed 1.8 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Mercury Edit 2 and Seed 1.8 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Mercury Edit 2 is the newest, released Mar 30, 2026. Seed 1.8 came out Dec 28, 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.
