Inkling Small vs Mercury 2.5
Which is better for the money: Inkling Small by Thinking Machines 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
Inkling Small scores 13.4 points higher (25.7 vs 12.3) but costs 1.1× as much to run the benchmark ($241 vs $218; both mid-range class). Pick Inkling Small when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise Mercury 2.5.
| Metric | Inkling Small | Mercury 2.5 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 25.7 | 12.3 | −52.1% Mercury 2.5 is 52.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $240.85 | $218.11 | −9.4% Mercury 2.5 is 9.4% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 12.67s | 4.39s | −65.4% Mercury 2.5 is 65.4% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.30 / $1.20 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image, Speech | Text |
Mercury 2.5 vs Inkling Small: 52.1% less intelligence, 9.4% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 65.4% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Inkling Small is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
Inkling SmallMercury 2.5Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/mercury-2-5 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/inkling-small/mercury-2-5?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill