Mistral Small 4 vs Mercury Edit 2 vs Hy3 preview
Mistral Small 4 comes out ahead, 64 to 56 and 35 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
Mistral AIMistral Small 4
64/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context256K
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
TencentHy3 preview
56/100- ECI—
- Price$0.176 / $0.586
- Context256K
Mistral Small 4 is our pick
Mistral Small 4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Hy3 preview (56) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features. 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 priceMistral Small 4Mistral Small 4 $0.263 · Hy3 preview $0.279 · Mercury Edit 2 $0.375 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextMistral Small 4 and Hy3 previewMistral Small 4 256,000 · Hy3 preview 256,000 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsMistral Small 4Mistral Small 4: Text, Images · Mercury Edit 2: Text · Hy3 preview: Text
- Self-hostingMistral Small 4 and Hy3 previewPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Mistral Small 4 | Mercury Edit 2 | Hy3 preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 77 | 70 | 76 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 60 | 0 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 0 | 36 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 35/100 | 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 | Mistral Small 4Mistral AI | Mercury Edit 2Inception | Hy3 previewTencent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 (best) | $0.25 | $0.176 |
| Output | $0.60 | $0.75 | $0.586 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.015 (best) | $0.025 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 (best) | $0.375 | $0.279 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Mistral API | Official Inception API | Median of 4 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 256,000 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 256,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens | 64,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeshigh | No | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | mistral-small-2603 | mercury-edit-2 | hy3-preview |
| API providers | 16 (best) | 1 | 5 |
| Released | Mar 16, 2026 | Mar 30, 2026 | Apr 20, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | Jun 2025 | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Mistral Small 4$2.70
- Mercury Edit 2$4.00
- Hy3 preview$2.93
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Mistral Small 4, Mercury Edit 2 or Hy3 preview?
Mistral Small 4 is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Hy3 preview (56) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features. 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, Mistral Small 4, Mercury Edit 2 or Hy3 preview?
Mistral Small 4 is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (official Mistral API price). Hy3 preview costs $0.176 input / $0.586 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers; free on Tencent TokenHub); Mercury Edit 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 $0.263 per million tokens for Mistral Small 4 versus $0.279 for Hy3 preview (1.1× as much) and $0.375 for Mercury Edit 2 (1.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Mistral Small 4 has not been scored yet, Mercury Edit 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 Mistral Small 4, Mercury Edit 2 and Hy3 preview 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?
Mistral Small 4 and Hy3 preview have the largest context windows (256,000 and 256,000 tokens), against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Mistral Small 4 up to 256,000, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192, Hy3 preview up to 64,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Mistral Small 4 accepts text and images; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text; Hy3 preview accepts text. Mistral Small 4 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Mistral Small 4 and Hy3 preview publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mercury Edit 2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Hy3 preview is the newest, released Apr 20, 2026. Mercury Edit 2 came out Mar 30, 2026; Mistral Small 4 came out Mar 16, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Mistral Small 4 Jun 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.
