Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) vs Mercury 2.5
Which is better for the money: Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) by Google or Mercury 2.5 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
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) scores 27.5 points higher (39.8 vs 12.3) but costs 5.0× as much to run the benchmark ($1100 vs $218; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) when you need intelligence above 12.3, and Mercury 2.5 when 12.3 is enough.
| Metric | Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) | Mercury 2.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 39.8 | 12.3 | −69.1% Mercury 2.5 is 69.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $1,100.06 | $218.11 | −80.2% Mercury 2.5 is 80.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | Not reported | 4.33s | — not comparable |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.75 / $3.75 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech, Video | Text |
Mercury 2.5 vs Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium): 69.1% less intelligence, 80.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and end-to-end time not fully reported.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Gemini 3.8 Flash (Medium)Mercury 2.5Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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