Mercury Edit 2 vs Qwen3-Coder-Next
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
Mercury Edit 2 is 37.5% cheaper on blended cost ($0.375 vs $0.600/Mtok)
| Specification |
by Inception
|
by Alibaba
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current coding | Current coding |
| Released | ||
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.250/Mtok | $0.300/Mtok |
| Output | $0.750/Mtok | $1.50/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.375/Mtok | $0.600/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.025/Mtok | — |
| Price basis | Inception's own rate card at docs.inceptionlabs.ai/get-started/models prices Mercury Edit 2 at $0.25 input / $0.025 cached input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens, in a table headed "Input Price (1M Tokens)", so the per-1M basis is the one the vendor declares. Unlike the Mercury 2.5 row on the same card, this row carries no strikethrough and no discount marker: the 80%-off banner on that page names Mercury 2.5 only, so these are plain list prices and not a promotional rate. Confirmed on a second first-party surface the same day: the API's edit- and FIM-scoped model lists (api.inceptionlabs.ai/v1/edit/completions/models and /v1/fim/completions/models) both serve mercury-edit-2 at prompt 0.00000025 and completion 0.00000075 per TOKEN with input_cache_reads 0.000000025 and cache writes free, which is the same $0.25 / $0.025 / $0.75 per 1M. The chat-scoped list at api.inceptionlabs.ai/v1/models does NOT carry this SKU — it lists Mercury 2 and Mercury 2.5 only — so that route's silence is about the endpoint it serves, not about the model. Verified 2026-09-11. Context window, on those same two surfaces, is the one field where they disagree, and we publish the rate card's figure: the card prints "FIM: 32K / NextEdit: 32K" with 8,192 max output tokens, stated per endpoint, while the model-list JSON reports context_length 128000 and max_output_length 32000. That JSON record reads as a template copied from Mercury 2 — 128000 is Mercury 2's exact window, its description is Mercury 2's text, and its created timestamp is byte-identical to the one served for Mercury 2.5, a model Inception launched on 2026-09-08 — so the card, which states a window per endpoint, is the more specific claim. None of the three prices is affected: both surfaces agree on all of them to the digit. | Alibaba Model Studio International list price. Tiered by input size: $0.30/$1.50 per 1M tokens for 0<Token≤32K, $0.50/$2.50 for 32K<Token≤128K, and $0.80/$4.00 for 128K<Token≤256K; the entry 0–32K tier is the headline shown here, the same basis used for every other tiered Alibaba row on this site. A long-context coding session bills at the higher tiers. No context-cache or batch rate is printed for this SKU, so cached input is left unset rather than assumed. Gateway resellers quote lower routed rates ($0.12/$0.80). This SKU's row carries no discount label, so the standard list rate is the one tracked here. |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 32K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
text
|
text
|
| Benchmarks sources: n/a / Artificial Analysis | ||
| Independent composite scores each on its own scale — not part of the average above | ||
| AA Intelligence Index | — | 10.1 |
| AA Agentic Index | — | 3.6 |
| AA-Omniscience Index (−100–100) | — | -62.4 |
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Inception — $0.250/$0.750/Mtok
|
Alibaba — $0.300/$1.50/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | Mercury Edit 2 | Qwen3-Coder-Next | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.38 | $0.6 | $0.22 (36.7%) |
| 10M tokens | $3.75 | $6 | $2.25 (37.5%) |
| 100M tokens | $37.5 | $60 | $22.5 (37.5%) |
| 1000M tokens | $375 | $600 | $225 (37.5%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick Mercury Edit 2 if…
- cost dominates: $0.375/Mtok blended vs $0.600 — 37.5% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.025/Mtok — 90% off its list input price, a discount Qwen3-Coder-Next doesn't offer
Pick Qwen3-Coder-Next if…
- you need the longer context: 262K tokens vs 32K (8.2×)
Summary
Mercury Edit 2 by Inception costs $0.250/Mtok input and $0.750/Mtok output, with a 32K-token context window. It supports text input.
Qwen3-Coder-Next by Alibaba costs $0.300/Mtok input and $1.50/Mtok output, with a 262K-token context window. It supports text input.
On a blended cost basis, Mercury Edit 2 is 37.5% cheaper than Qwen3-Coder-Next.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
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