Qwen3.5 397B-A17B vs Mercury Edit 2
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B comes out ahead, 56 to 35 on our weighted score, though Mercury Edit 2 is 3.6× cheaper per token.
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
56/100- ECI146.7
- Price$0.60 / $3.60
- Context262K
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
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Make it a three-way comparison.
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is our pick
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mercury Edit 2 wins on price. 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 · Qwen3.5 397B-A17B $1.35 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B 262,144 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3.5 397B-A17B: Text, Images, Audio, Video · Mercury Edit 2: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3.5 397B-A17BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.5 397B-A17B | Mercury Edit 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 44 | 70 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 90 | 0 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 0 |
| Overall | 100% | 56/100 | 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 | Qwen3.5 397B-A17BAlibaba (Qwen) | Mercury Edit 2Inception |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 146.7 | — |
| ECI rank | #67 of 148 | — |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 86.4% | — |
| FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Research-level mathematics | 31.2% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 88.9% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.60 | $0.25 (best) |
| Output | $3.60 | $0.75 (best) |
| Cached input | — | $0.025 |
| Blended (3:1) | $1.35 | $0.375 (best) |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Alibaba API | Official Inception API |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens (best) | 8,192 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | Yes | No |
| Video | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | No |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | qwen3.5-397b-a17b | mercury-edit-2 |
| API providers | 23 (best) | 1 |
| Released | Feb 15, 2026 | Mar 30, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — |
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 397B-A17B$13.20
- Mercury Edit 2$4.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Mercury Edit 2?
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B is the better all-round choice, scoring 56/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features and context window. Mercury Edit 2 wins on price. 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, Qwen3.5 397B-A17B or Mercury Edit 2?
Mercury Edit 2 is cheaper at $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). Qwen3.5 397B-A17B costs $0.60 input / $3.60 output per million tokens (official Alibaba 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 $1.35 for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B (3.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B has an ECI of 146.7 and Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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?
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 397B-A17B up to 65,536, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B accepts text, images, audio and video; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 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. Qwen3.5 397B-A17B came out Feb 15, 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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