Mercury 2 vs Solar Pro 3
Which is better for the money: Mercury 2 by Inception or Solar Pro 3 by Upstage? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Clear winner
Verdict
Pick Mercury 2
Solar Pro 3 vs Mercury 2: 27.8% less intelligence, 51.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 184.1% slower end-to-end.
| Metric | Mercury 2 | Solar Pro 3 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 10.8 | 7.8 | −27.8% Solar Pro 3 is 27.8% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $104.94 | $159.22 | +51.7% Solar Pro 3 is 51.7% more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 6.65s | 18.89s | +184.1% Solar Pro 3 is 184.1% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $0.75 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- Mercury 2 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (High) scores 37.80 for $94.1.
- Solar Pro 3 is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
Mercury 2Solar Pro 3Today'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/mercury-2/solar-pro-3 · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/mercury-2/solar-pro-3?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill