ZMIME
Comparison · 2 models · Updated Oct 4, 2026

North Small Translate vs Mercury 2.5

Mercury 2.5 comes out ahead, 71 to 50 on our weighted score.

  1. Cohere

    North Small Translate

    Released Sep 9, 2026

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • PriceFree / Free
    • Context16K
    Full specs Remove North Small Translate
  2. Our pick

    Inception

    Mercury 2.5

    Released Sep 8, 2026

    71/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.04 / $0.15
    • Context260K
    Full specs Remove Mercury 2.5

  3. Add a model

    Make it a three-way comparison.

01 — Verdict

Mercury 2.5 is our pick

Mercury 2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against North Small Translate (50). 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 priceNorth Small TranslateNorth Small Translate Free · Mercury 2.5 $0.068 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextMercury 2.5Mercury 2.5 260,000 · North Small Translate 16,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsSame inputsNorth Small Translate: Text · Mercury 2.5: Text
  • Self-hostingNorth Small TranslatePublishes downloadable weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightNorth Small TranslateMercury 2.5
Price50%100100
Inputs & features30%045
Context window20%036
Overall100%50/10071/100

Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability. 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.

North Small Translate vs Mercury 2.5 specifications side by side
SpecificationNorth Small TranslateCohereMercury 2.5Inception
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
InputFree (best)$0.04
OutputFree (best)$0.15
Cached input—$0.004
Blended (3:1)Free (best)$0.068
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceOfficial Cohere APIOfficial Inception API
Limits
Context window16,000 tokens260,000 tokens (best)
Max output16,000 tokens65,536 tokens (best)
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesNoNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoNoNo
ReasoningNoYeslow · medium · high
Tool callingNoYes
Structured outputNoYes
Availability
WeightsOpenCC-BY-NC-4.0Proprietary
API model IDnorth-small-translate-09-2026mercury-2.5
API providers11
ReleasedSep 9, 2026Sep 8, 2026
Knowledge cutoff—Nov 1, 2025
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.

  • North Small TranslateFree
  • Mercury 2.5$0.70
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: North Small Translate or Mercury 2.5?

Mercury 2.5 is the better all-round choice, scoring 71/100 against North Small Translate (50). 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, North Small Translate or Mercury 2.5?

North Small Translate is cheaper at Free input / Free output per million tokens (official Cohere API price). Mercury 2.5 costs $0.04 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). North Small Translate is listed as free.

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. North Small Translate has not been scored yet and Mercury 2.5 has not been scored yet.

Which is better for coding?

There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for North Small Translate and Mercury 2.5 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. Note that North Small Translate does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Mercury 2.5 has the largest context window at 260,000 tokens, against 16,000 for North Small Translate. Maximum output per response: North Small Translate up to 16,000, Mercury 2.5 up to 65,536 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

North Small Translate accepts text; Mercury 2.5 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.

Are any of these open source?

North Small Translate publishes its weights (CC-BY-NC-4.0) and can be self-hosted; Mercury 2.5 is proprietary.

Which is newer?

North Small Translate is the newest, released Sep 9, 2026. Mercury 2.5 came out Sep 8, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Mercury 2.5 Nov 1, 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.

05 — Keep comparing

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