GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) by OpenAI or Mercury 2 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 (Xhigh) scores 40.2 points higher (51.0 vs 10.8) but costs 6.3× as much to run the benchmark ($662 vs $105; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 51.0 | 10.8 | −78.8% Mercury 2 is 78.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $662.28 | $104.94 | −84.2% Mercury 2 is 84.2% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 86.31s | 8.08s | −90.6% Mercury 2 is 90.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh): 78.8% less intelligence, 84.2% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) is on today's frontier: nothing is both smarter and cheaper.
- Mercury 2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh)Mercury 2Today'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-xhigh/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-1-sol-xhigh/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill