DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) by DeepSeek or Mercury 2 by Inception? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) scores 9.6 points higher (20.4 vs 10.8) but costs 4.3× as much to run the benchmark ($451 vs $105; both mid-range class). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 20.4 | 10.8 | −47.1% Mercury 2 is 47.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $450.76 | $104.94 | −76.7% Mercury 2 is 76.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.84s | 6.65s | −2.8% Mercury 2 is 2.8% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.32 / $3.96 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Mercury 2 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning): 47.1% less intelligence, 76.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 2.8% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- Mercury 2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (Non-reasoning)Mercury 2Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-pro-non-reasoning/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-v4-pro-non-reasoning/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill