Kimi K3.1 Pro vs Mercury 2
Which is better for the money: Kimi K3.1 Pro by Kimi 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
Kimi K3.1 Pro scores 44.3 points higher (55.1 vs 10.8) but costs 30× as much to run the benchmark ($3117 vs $105; flagship vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Kimi K3.1 Pro when you need intelligence above 10.8, and Mercury 2 when 10.8 is enough.
| Metric | Kimi K3.1 Pro | Mercury 2 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 55.1 | 10.8 | −80.4% Mercury 2 is 80.4% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $3,117.31 | $104.94 | −96.6% Mercury 2 is 96.6% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 46.53s | 6.65s | −85.7% Mercury 2 is 85.7% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $10.0 | $0.25 / $0.75 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
Mercury 2 vs Kimi K3.1 Pro: 80.4% less intelligence, 96.6% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 85.7% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Kimi K3.1 Pro 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.
Kimi K3.1 ProMercury 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/kimi-k3-1-pro/mercury-2 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/kimi-k3-1-pro/mercury-2?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill