Seed 1.6 Flash vs Mercury Edit 2 vs Sarvam 105B
Seed 1.6 Flash comes out ahead, 78 to 65 and 35 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
ByteDance SeedSeed 1.6 Flash
78/100- ECI—
- Price$0.022 / $0.223
- Context256K
InceptionMercury Edit 2
35/100- ECI—
- Price$0.25 / $0.75
- Context32K
Sarvam AI
Sarvam 105B
65/100- ECI—
- Price$0.047 / $0.186
- Context131K
Seed 1.6 Flash is our pick
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Sarvam 105B (65) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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 priceSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash $0.072 · Sarvam 105B $0.082 · Mercury Edit 2 $0.375 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash 256,000 · Sarvam 105B 131,072 · Mercury Edit 2 32,000 tokens
- Widest inputsSeed 1.6 FlashSeed 1.6 Flash: Text, Images · Mercury Edit 2: Text · Sarvam 105B: Text
- Self-hostingSarvam 105BPublishes downloadable weights
| Measure | Weight | Seed 1.6 Flash | Mercury Edit 2 | Sarvam 105B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | 50% | 100 | 70 | 100 |
| Inputs & features | 30% | 70 | 0 | 35 |
| Context window | 20% | 36 | 0 | 24 |
| Overall | 100% | 78/100 | 35/100 | 65/100 |
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 | Seed 1.6 FlashByteDance Seed | Mercury Edit 2Inception | Sarvam 105BSarvam AI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | — | — | — |
| ECI rank | — | — | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.022 (best) | $0.25 | $0.047 |
| Output | $0.223 | $0.75 | $0.186 (best) |
| Cached input | $0.0044 (best) | $0.025 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.072 (best) | $0.375 | $0.082 |
| Long-context rate | Over 32K: $0.045 / $0.445 | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Official Volcengine Ark API | Official Inception API | Median of 2 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 256,000 tokens (best) | 32,000 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Max output | 32,000 tokens | 8,192 tokens | 131,072 tokens (best) |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | Yes | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No | Yes · low · medium · high |
| Tool calling | Yes | No | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary | Open |
| API model ID | doubao-seed-1-6-flash-250828 | mercury-edit-2 | sarvam-105b |
| API providers | 2 | 1 | 3 (best) |
| Released | Aug 28, 2025 | Mar 30, 2026 | Sep 1, 2025 |
| 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.
- Seed 1.6 Flash$0.668
- Mercury Edit 2$4.00
- Sarvam 105B$0.842
Which should you choose?
Which is better: Seed 1.6 Flash, Mercury Edit 2 or Sarvam 105B?
Seed 1.6 Flash is the better all-round choice, scoring 78/100 against Sarvam 105B (65) and Mercury Edit 2 (35). It leads on inputs & features and context window. 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, Seed 1.6 Flash, Mercury Edit 2 or Sarvam 105B?
Seed 1.6 Flash is cheaper at $0.022 input / $0.223 output per million tokens (official Volcengine Ark API price). Sarvam 105B costs $0.047 input / $0.186 output per million tokens (median across 2 API providers); Mercury Edit 2 costs $0.25 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (official Inception API price). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.072 per million tokens for Seed 1.6 Flash versus $0.082 for Sarvam 105B (1.1× as much) and $0.375 for Mercury Edit 2 (5.2× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
There is no independent benchmark that covers all three models yet. Seed 1.6 Flash has not been scored yet, Mercury Edit 2 has not been scored yet and Sarvam 105B has not been scored yet.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for Seed 1.6 Flash, Mercury Edit 2 and Sarvam 105B 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?
Seed 1.6 Flash has the largest context window at 256,000 tokens, against 131,072 for Sarvam 105B and 32,000 for Mercury Edit 2. Maximum output per response: Seed 1.6 Flash up to 32,000, Mercury Edit 2 up to 8,192, Sarvam 105B up to 131,072 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
Seed 1.6 Flash accepts text and images; Mercury Edit 2 accepts text; Sarvam 105B accepts text. Seed 1.6 Flash handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Sarvam 105B publishes its weights and can be self-hosted; Seed 1.6 Flash and Mercury Edit 2 is proprietary.
Which is newer?
Mercury Edit 2 is the newest, released Mar 30, 2026. Sarvam 105B came out Sep 1, 2025; Seed 1.6 Flash came out Aug 28, 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 Oct 4, 2026.
