Mercury 2.5 vs Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: Mercury 2.5 by Inception or Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) 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
Mercury 2.5 scores 1.0 points higher (12.3 vs 11.3) but costs 5.1× as much to run the benchmark ($218 vs $42.5; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Mercury 2.5 when you need intelligence above 11.3, and Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) when 11.3 is enough.
| Metric | Mercury 2.5 | Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 12.3 | 11.3 | −8.1% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 8.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $218.11 | $42.50 | −80.5% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 80.5% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 4.32s | 14.45s | +234.5% Mistral Small 4 (Reas… is 234.5% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $0.75 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image |
Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning) vs Mercury 2.5: 8.1% less intelligence, 80.5% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 234.5% 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 Small 4 (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Medium) scores 29.90 for $31.2.
Mercury 2.5Mistral Small 4 (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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