Qwen3.5 0.8B vs GPT-5.3 Chat vs Mercury 2
Qwen3.5 0.8B comes out ahead, 57 to 40 and 37 on our weighted score.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 0.8B
57/100- ECI—
- Price—
- Context262K
OpenAIGPT-5.3 Chat
40/100- ECI—
- Price$1.75 / $14.00
- Context128K
InceptionMercury 2
37/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context128K
Qwen3.5 0.8B is our pick
Qwen3.5 0.8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against GPT-5.3 Chat (40) and Mercury 2 (37). 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 2Mercury 2 $0.375 · GPT-5.3 Chat $4.81 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend) · Qwen3.5 0.8B unpriced
- Longest contextQwen3.5 0.8BQwen3.5 0.8B 262,144 · GPT-5.3 Chat 128,000 · Mercury 2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 0.8BQwen3.5 0.8B: Text, Images, Video · GPT-5.3 Chat: Text, Images · Mercury 2: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3.5 0.8BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.5 0.8B | GPT-5.3 Chat | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inputs & features | 60% | 70 | 50 | 45 |
| Context window | 40% | 37 | 24 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 57/100 | 40/100 | 37/100 |
Left out because at least one model lacks the data: capability and price. The remaining weights were rescaled.
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | Qwen3.5 0.8BAlibaba (Qwen) | GPT-5.3 ChatOpenAI | Mercury 2Inception |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | — | $1.75 | $0.25 (best) |
| Output | — | $14.00 | $0.75 (best) |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.025 |
| Blended (3:1) | — | $4.81 | $0.375 (best) |
| Long-context rate | — | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | — | Median of 4 providers | Official Inception API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 81,920 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens | 50,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | mercury-2 |
| API providers | 1 | 4 | 7 (best) |
| Released | Mar 2, 2026 | Mar 3, 2026 | Feb 24, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Aug 31, 2025 | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- Qwen3.5 0.8B—
- GPT-5.3 Chat$45.50
- Mercury 2$4.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.5 0.8B, GPT-5.3 Chat or Mercury 2?
Qwen3.5 0.8B is the better all-round choice, scoring 57/100 against GPT-5.3 Chat (40) and Mercury 2 (37). 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, Qwen3.5 0.8B, GPT-5.3 Chat or Mercury 2?
Mercury 2 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). GPT-5.3 Chat costs $1.75 input / $14.00 output per million tokens (median across 4 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.375 per million tokens for Mercury 2 versus $4.81 for GPT-5.3 Chat (13× as much). Qwen3.5 0.8B has no published per-token price.
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3.5 0.8B has not been scored yet, GPT-5.3 Chat has not been scored yet and Mercury 2 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 0.8B, GPT-5.3 Chat and Mercury 2 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. Test both on a sample of your own tasks. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 0.8B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 128,000 for GPT-5.3 Chat and 128,000 for Mercury 2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 0.8B up to 81,920, GPT-5.3 Chat up to 16,384, Mercury 2 up to 50,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.5 0.8B accepts text, images and video; GPT-5.3 Chat accepts text and images; Mercury 2 accepts text. Qwen3.5 0.8B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.5 0.8B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; GPT-5.3 Chat and Mercury 2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
GPT-5.3 Chat is the newest, released Mar 3, 2026. Qwen3.5 0.8B came out Mar 2, 2026; Mercury 2 came out Feb 24, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: GPT-5.3 Chat Aug 31, 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 Nov 2, 2026.
