GPT-6 Astra (Max) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Astra (Max) 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-6 Astra (Max) scores 41.9 points higher (52.7 vs 10.8) but costs 51× as much to run the benchmark ($5324 vs $105; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick GPT-6 Astra (Max) when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | GPT-6 Astra (Max) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 52.7 | 10.8 | −79.5% Mercury 2 is 79.5% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $5,324.10 | $104.94 | −98.0% Mercury 2 is 98.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 280.26s | 6.65s | −97.6% Mercury 2 is 97.6% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $10.0 / $50.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs GPT-6 Astra (Max): 79.5% less intelligence, 98.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 97.6% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Astra (Max) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Opus 5.5 (Xhigh, Default Fallback) scores 56.00 for $4057.
- 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 Astra (Max)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-6-astra/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-astra/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill