GLM-5.3 (Max) vs Mercury 2.5
Which is better for the money: GLM-5.3 (Max) by Z AI 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
GLM-5.3 (Max) scores 32.5 points higher (44.8 vs 12.3) but costs 11× as much to run the benchmark ($2503 vs $218; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GLM-5.3 (Max) when you need intelligence above 12.3, and Mercury 2.5 when 12.3 is enough.
| Metric | GLM-5.3 (Max) | Mercury 2.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 44.8 | 12.3 | −72.5% Mercury 2.5 is 72.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $2,503.48 | $218.11 | −91.3% Mercury 2.5 is 91.3% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 31.62s | 4.32s | −86.3% Mercury 2.5 is 86.3% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $1.40 / $4.40 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Mercury 2.5 vs GLM-5.3 (Max): 72.5% less intelligence, 91.3% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 86.3% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GLM-5.3 (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (High, Default Fallback) scores 53.60 for $2172.
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GLM-5.3 (Max)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/glm-5-3/mercury-2-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/glm-5-3/mercury-2-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill