DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) vs Mercury 2.5
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) by DeepSeek or Mercury 2.5 by Inception? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High)
Mercury 2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High): 49.6% less intelligence, 80.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) | Mercury 2.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 24.4 | 12.3 | −49.6% Mercury 2.5 is 49.6% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $121.20 | $218.11 | +80.0% Mercury 2.5 is 80.0% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 4.18s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.11 / $0.23 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0420 (High)Mercury 2.5Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420-high/mercury-2-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-flash-0420-high/mercury-2-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill