GPT-6.1 Sol (High) vs Mercury 2.5
Which is better for the money: GPT-6.1 Sol (High) by OpenAI or Mercury 2.5 by Inception? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6.1 Sol (High) scores 37.9 points higher (50.2 vs 12.3) but costs 2.4× as much to run the benchmark ($521 vs $218; premium vs mid-range cost classes). Pick GPT-6.1 Sol (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mercury 2.5.
| Metric | GPT-6.1 Sol (High) | Mercury 2.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 50.2 | 12.3 | −75.5% Mercury 2.5 is 75.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $521.32 | $218.11 | −58.2% Mercury 2.5 is 58.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 43.44s | 4.39s | −89.9% Mercury 2.5 is 89.9% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2.5 vs GPT-6.1 Sol (High): 75.5% less intelligence, 58.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 89.9% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6.1 Sol (High) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
GPT-6.1 Sol (High)Mercury 2.5Today's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-high/mercury-2-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-high/mercury-2-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill