GPT-5.5 (High) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: GPT-5.5 (High) by OpenAI 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
GPT-5.5 (High) scores 26.2 points higher (37.0 vs 10.8) but costs 33× as much to run the benchmark ($3411 vs $105; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-5.5 (High) when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-5.5 (High) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 37.0 | 10.8 | −70.8% Mercury 2 is 70.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,410.76 | $104.94 | −96.9% Mercury 2 is 96.9% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 19.79s | 6.65s | −66.4% Mercury 2 is 66.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $5.00 / $30.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs GPT-5.5 (High): 70.8% less intelligence, 96.9% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 66.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5.5 (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 55.10 for $3117.
- Mercury 2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
GPT-5.5 (High)Mercury 2Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
Compare something else
Agents:
Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-high/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-5-high/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill