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Comparison · 2 models · Updated Nov 2, 2026

Qwen3.5 9B Base vs Mercury Edit 2

Qwen3.5 9B Base comes out ahead, 50 to 34 on our weighted score, though Mercury Edit 2 is 12% cheaper per token.

  1. Our pick

    Alibaba (Qwen)

    Qwen3.5 9B Base

    Released Feb 26, 2026

    50/100
    • ECI—
    • Price$0.30 / $0.807
    • Context262K
    Full specs Remove Qwen3.5 9B Base

  2. Inception

    Mercury Edit 2

    Released Mar 30, 2026

    34/100
    • 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

Qwen3.5 9B Base is our pick

Qwen3.5 9B Base is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (34). 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 9B Base $0.427 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
  • Longest contextQwen3.5 9B BaseQwen3.5 9B Base 262,144 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
  • Widest inputsQwen3.5 9B BaseQwen3.5 9B Base: Text, Images, Video · Mercury Edit 2: Text
  • Self-hostingQwen3.5 9B BasePublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
How the score is built
MeasureWeightQwen3.5 9B BaseMercury Edit 2
Price50%6567
Inputs & features30%350
Context window20%370
Overall100%50/10034/100

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.

Qwen3.5 9B Base vs Mercury Edit 2 specifications side by side
SpecificationQwen3.5 9B BaseAlibaba (Qwen)Mercury Edit 2Inception
Capability
Capabilities Index (ECI)——
ECI rank——
Price per million tokens
Input$0.30$0.25 (best)
Output$0.807$0.75 (best)
Cached input—$0.025
Blended (3:1)$0.427$0.375 (best)
Long-context rateSame rateSame rate
Price sourceMedian of 1 providersOfficial Inception API
Limits
Context window262,144 tokens (best)32,000 tokens
Max output65,536 tokens (best)8,192 tokens
Inputs and features
TextYesYes
ImagesYesNo
PDFsNoNo
AudioNoNo
VideoYesNo
ReasoningNoNo
Tool callingNoNo
Structured outputNoNo
Availability
WeightsOpenApache-2.0Proprietary
API model ID—mercury-edit-2
API providers11
ReleasedFeb 26, 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.

  • Qwen3.5 9B Base$4.61
  • Mercury Edit 2$4.00
04 — Questions

Which should you choose?

Which is better: Qwen3.5 9B Base or Mercury Edit 2?

Qwen3.5 9B Base is the better all-round choice, scoring 50/100 against Mercury Edit 2 (34). 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 9B Base 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 9B Base costs $0.30 input / $0.807 output per million tokens (median across 1 API provider). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.375 per million tokens for Mercury Edit 2 versus $0.427 for Qwen3.5 9B Base (1.1× as much).

Which scores higher on benchmarks?

There is no independent benchmark that covers both models yet. Qwen3.5 9B Base 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 Qwen3.5 9B Base 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 Qwen3.5 9B Base and Mercury Edit 2 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 9B Base has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 9B Base up to 65,536, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192 tokens.

Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?

Qwen3.5 9B Base accepts text, images and video; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text. Qwen3.5 9B Base handles the widest range of inputs.

Are any of these open source?

Qwen3.5 9B Base publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) 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 9B Base came out Feb 26, 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 Nov 2, 2026.

05 — Keep comparing

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