KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 vs Mercury Edit 2
Side-by-side comparison of API pricing, specs, benchmarks, and capabilities
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 is 30.9% cheaper on blended cost ($0.259 vs $0.375/Mtok)
| Specification |
by Kwaipilot
|
by Inception
|
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Status | Current coding | Current coding |
| Released | ||
| Pricing per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.148/Mtok | $0.250/Mtok |
| Output | $0.593/Mtok | $0.750/Mtok |
| Blended avg | $0.259/Mtok | $0.375/Mtok |
| Cached input | $0.030/Mtok | $0.025/Mtok |
| Price basis | USD is FX-derived from StreamLake's RMB list price (¥1 in / ¥0.2 cached / ¥4 out per 1M) at 6.7476 CNY/USD (2026-08-07); re-checked on FX drift, not a promo. | 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. |
| Specifications | ||
| Context window | 256K tokens | 32K tokens |
| Parameters | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Speed (TPS) | — | — |
| Modalities | ||
| Input |
text
|
text
|
| Providers | ||
| Available from |
Kwaipilot — $0.148/$0.593/Mtok
|
Inception — $0.250/$0.750/Mtok
|
Cost at scale
1M tokens · 50/50 input/output| Volume | KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 | Mercury Edit 2 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1M tokens | $0.26 | $0.38 | $0.12 (32%) |
| 10M tokens | $2.59 | $3.75 | $1.16 (30.9%) |
| 100M tokens | $25.92 | $37.5 | $11.58 (30.9%) |
| 1000M tokens | $259.25 | $375 | $115.75 (30.9%) |
When to pick which
distilled from the pricing and spec data above
Pick KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 if…
- cost dominates: $0.259/Mtok blended vs $0.375 — 30.9% less on the same 50/50 token mix
- you need the longer context: 256K tokens vs 32K (8×)
Pick Mercury Edit 2 if…
- your workload re-reads context (agents, RAG, long chats): cached input costs $0.025/Mtok — 90% off its list input price
Summary
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 by Kwaipilot costs $0.148/Mtok input and $0.593/Mtok output, with a 256K-token context window. It supports text input.
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.
On a blended cost basis, KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 is 30.9% cheaper than Mercury Edit 2.It also has a larger context window.
Note: Pricing is per million tokens. Actual costs vary with usage patterns, prompt caching, and batch discounts. Always verify against official provider pricing pages.
More comparisons
pairs sharing a model with this page
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro
87% price gap
KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5 vs KAT-Coder-Air V2.5
80% price gap
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 vs Codestral 2508
42% price gap
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 vs Grok Build 0.1
79% price gap
KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 vs Relace Apply 3
71% price gap
Mercury Edit 2 vs KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5
71% price gap
Mercury Edit 2 vs Grok Build 0.1
70% price gap
Mercury Edit 2 vs Relace Apply 3
58% price gap