Qwen3.5 9B Base vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B vs Mercury 2
Too close to call on our weighted score (Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 54, Mercury 2 52, Qwen3.5 9B Base 50). The right pick depends on what you value most.
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 9B Base
50/100- ECI—
- Price$0.30 / $0.807
- Context262K
NVIDIANemotron 3 Super 120B A12B
54/100- ECI—
- Price$0.15 / $0.65
- Context262K
InceptionMercury 2
52/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context128K
Too close to call
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 54/100, Mercury 2 52/100, Qwen3.5 9B Base 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 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 priceNemotron 3 Super 120B A12BNemotron 3 Super 120B A12B $0.275 · Mercury 2 $0.375 · Qwen3.5 9B Base $0.427 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 9B Base and Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12BQwen3.5 9B Base 262,144 · Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 262,144 · Mercury 2 128,000 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 9B BaseQwen3.5 9B Base: Text, Images, Video · Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B: Text · Mercury 2: Text
- Self-hostingQwen3.5 9B Base and Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12BPublishes downloadable weights (Apache-2.0)
| Measure | Weight | Qwen3.5 9B Base | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 65 | 73 | 67 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 35 | 35 | 45 |
| Context window | 20% | 37 | 37 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 50/100 | 54/100 | 52/100 |
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 9B BaseAlibaba (Qwen) | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12BNVIDIA | Mercury 2Inception |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.30 | $0.15 (best) | $0.25 |
| Output | $0.807 | $0.65 (best) | $0.75 |
| Cached input | — | — | $0.025 |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.427 | $0.275 (best) | $0.375 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 1 providers | Median of 16 providers | Official Inception API |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) | 128,000 tokens |
| Max output | 65,536 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 50,000 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | Yes | No | No |
| Reasoning | No | Yes | Yeslow · medium · high |
| Tool calling | No | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | No | No | Yes |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | OpenApache-2.0 | Open | Proprietary |
| API model ID | — | — | mercury-2 |
| API providers | 1 | 18 (best) | 7 |
| Released | Feb 26, 2026 | Mar 11, 2026 | Feb 24, 2026 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | Jun 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 9B Base$4.61
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B$2.80
- Mercury 2$4.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Qwen3.5 9B Base, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B or Mercury 2?
It is close. Our weighted score puts them within 3 points (Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 54/100, Mercury 2 52/100, Qwen3.5 9B Base 50/100), so choose by what matters most for your work: Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 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, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B or Mercury 2?
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B is cheaper at $0.15 input / $0.65 output per million tokens (median across 16 API providers). Mercury 2 costs $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 $0.275 per million tokens for Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B versus $0.375 for Mercury 2 (1.4× as much) and $0.427 for Qwen3.5 9B Base (1.6× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Qwen3.5 9B Base has not been scored yet, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B 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 9B Base, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B and Mercury 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 does not support tool calling, which most coding agents need.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 9B Base and Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 128,000 for Mercury 2. Maximum output per response: Qwen3.5 9B Base up to 65,536, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B up to 262,144, Mercury 2 up to 50,000 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Qwen3.5 9B Base accepts text, images and video; Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B accepts text; Mercury 2 accepts text. Qwen3.5 9B Base handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Qwen3.5 9B Base and Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B publishes its weights (Apache-2.0) and can be self-hosted; Mercury 2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B is the newest, released Mar 11, 2026. Qwen3.5 9B Base came out Feb 26, 2026; Mercury 2 came out Feb 24, 2026. Knowledge cutoff: Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B Jun 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.
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