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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs Mercury Edit 2

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B comes out ahead, 35 to 0 on our weighted score.

  1. Our pick

    NVIDIA

    Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B

    Released Mar 24, 2026

    35/100
    • ECI—
    • Price—
    • Context256K
    Full specs Remove Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B

  2. Inception

    Mercury Edit 2

    Released Mar 30, 2026

    0/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.25 / $0.75
    • Context32K
    Full specs Remove Mercury Edit 2

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is our pick

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 35/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (0). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. 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 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B unpriced
  • Longest contextNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3BNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B 256,000 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B: Text · Mercury Edit 2: Text
  • Self-hostingNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3BPublishes downloadable weights
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3BMercury Edit 2
Inputs & features60%350
Context window40%360
Overall100%35/1000/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.

02 — Side by side

Every spec in one table

Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs Mercury Edit 2 specifications side by side
SpecificationNemotron Cascade 2 30B A3BNVIDIAMercury Edit 2Inception
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input—$0.25
Output—$0.75
Cached input—$0.025
Blended (3:1)—$0.375
Long-context rate—Same rate
Price source—Official Inception API
Limits
Context window256,000 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Max output32,768 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningYesNo
Tool callingYesNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenProprietary
API model ID—mercury-edit-2
API providers—1
ReleasedMar 24, 2026Mar 30, 2026
Knowledge cutoff——
03 — Cost

What would a month cost?

Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.

  • Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B—
  • Mercury Edit 2$4.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or Mercury Edit 2?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is the better all-round choice, scoring 35/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (0). It leads on inputs & features and context window. The score weighs inputs & features 60%, context window 40%. None of the shared benchmarks cover every model here yet, so capability is left out of this verdict.

Which is cheaper, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or Mercury Edit 2?

Mercury Edit 2 is cheaper at $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 $0.375 per million tokens for Mercury Edit 2 versus . Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B has no published per-token price.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B has not been scored yet and Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and Mercury Edit 2 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?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B up to 32,768, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B accepts text; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Mercury Edit 2 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

Mercury Edit 2 is the newest, released Mar 30, 2026. Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B came out Mar 24, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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