Claude Opus 5 vs Mercury Edit 2
Too close to call on our weighted score (Claude Opus 5 37, Mercury Edit 2 35). The right pick depends on what you value most.
AnthropicClaude Opus 5
37/100- ECI162.9
- Price$5.00 / $25.00
- Context1M
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Claude Opus 5 37/100, Mercury Edit 2 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mercury Edit 2 on price and Claude Opus 5 for long inputs. 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 · Claude Opus 5 $10.00 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextClaude Opus 5Claude Opus 5 1,000,000 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsClaude Opus 5Claude Opus 5: Text, Images, PDFs · Mercury Edit 2: Text
- Self-hostingNo open weightsBoth are available only through APIs
| Measure | Weight | Claude Opus 5 | Mercury Edit 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 2 | 70 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 80 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 60 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 37/100 | 35/100 |
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 | Claude Opus 5Anthropic | Mercury Edit 2Inception |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 162.9 | — |
| ECI rank | #5 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 93.9% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 85.6% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 98.9% | — |
| SimpleQA VerifiedShort factual questions | 59.9% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $5.00 | $0.25 (best) |
| Output | $25.00 | $0.75 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.50 | $0.025 (best) |
| Blended (3:1) | $10.00 | $0.375 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Anthropic API | Official Inception API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 1,000,000 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Max output | 128,000 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | Yes | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yeslow · medium · high · xhigh · max | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | claude-opus-5 | mercury-edit-2 |
| API providers | 35 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Jul 24, 2026 | Mar 30, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | May 2026 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Claude Opus 5$100.00
- Mercury Edit 2$4.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Claude Opus 5 or Mercury Edit 2?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 2 points (Claude Opus 5 37/100, Mercury Edit 2 35/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Mercury Edit 2 on price and Claude Opus 5 for long inputs. 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, Claude Opus 5 or Mercury Edit 2?
Mercury Edit 2 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). Claude Opus 5 costs $5.00 input / $25.00 output per million tokens (official Anthropic 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 $10.00 for Claude Opus 5 (27× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Claude Opus 5 has an ECI of 162.9 and Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Claude Opus 5 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?
Claude Opus 5 has the largest context window at 1,000,000 tokens, against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Claude Opus 5 up to 128,000, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Claude Opus 5 accepts text, images and PDFs; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text. Claude Opus 5 handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
No. Claude Opus 5 and Mercury Edit 2 are proprietary and only available through APIs and apps.
Which is newer?
Claude Opus 5 is the newest, released Jul 24, 2026. Mercury Edit 2 came out Mar 30, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Claude Opus 5 May 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.
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