Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral Large 4 Preview
Which is better for the money: Mercury 2.5 by Inception or Mistral Large 4 Preview by Mistral? 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
Mistral Large 4 Preview scores 26.1 points higher (38.4 vs 12.3) but costs 7.4× as much to run the benchmark ($1608 vs $218; premium vs mid-range cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mistral Large 4 Preview when you need intelligence above 12.3, and Mercury 2.5 when 12.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mercury 2.5 | Mistral Large 4 Preview | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.3 | 38.4 | +212.2% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 3.1× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $218.11 | $1,607.86 | +637.2% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 7.4× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.24s | 24.31s | +473.3% Mistral Large 4 Previ… is 473.3% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $0.75 | $1.36 / $4.18 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Large 4 Preview vs Mercury 2.5: 212.2% more intelligence, 637.2% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 473.3% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mercury 2.5 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Pro scores 46.30 for $207.
- Mistral Large 4 Preview is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
Mercury 2.5Mistral Large 4 PreviewToday's Pareto frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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