GPT-6 Luna (Max) vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: GPT-6 Luna (Max) by OpenAI or Mercury 2 by Inception? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-24.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 27.3 points higher (38.1 vs 10.8) but costs 1.2× as much to run the benchmark ($122 vs $105; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-6 Luna (Max) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mercury 2.
| Metric | GPT-6 Luna (Max) | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 38.1 | 10.8 | −71.7% Mercury 2 is 71.7% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $122.05 | $104.94 | −14.0% Mercury 2 is 14.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 82.02s | 8.08s | −90.1% Mercury 2 is 90.1% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.10 / $0.50 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs GPT-6 Luna (Max): 71.7% less intelligence, 14.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 90.1% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-6 Luna (Max) 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 Luna (Max)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-luna/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-6-luna/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill