API cost decision in 10 seconds

Gemma 4 31B (free) vs Mercury 2

Pick Gemma 4 31B (free) when budget and context both matter.

Pricing data updated: 2026-05-26T11:08:00Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Gemma 4 31B (free) when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickGemma 4 31B (free)

Context-first pickGemma 4 31B (free)

Sample savings$0.62100%

10x traffic gap$6.25

Gemma 4 31B (free) is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $6.25. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Gemma 4 31B (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Gemma 4 31B (free)	Mercury 2
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Gemma 4 31B (free)	$0	$1.62
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Gemma 4 31B (free)	$0	$1
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Gemma 4 31B (free)	$0	$4

Cheaper input Gemma 4 31B (free) $0 vs $0.25 / 1M

Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for input tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Gemma 4 31B (free) $0 vs $0.75 / 1M

Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for output tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.75 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Gemma 4 31B (free) 262.14K vs 128K

Gemma 4 31B (free) has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Sample workload Gemma 4 31B (free) $0 vs $0.62

Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.62.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Gemma 4 31B (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Mercury 2 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.

Quick Decision

Verdict

Gemma 4 31B (free) has the lower input price; Gemma 4 31B (free) has the lower output price; Gemma 4 31B (free) offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Gemma 4 31B (free) is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Gemma 4 31B (free) and $0.62 for Mercury 2.

Best Fit

Choose Gemma 4 31B (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Mercury 2 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).
Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.62.
Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for input tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per 1M tokens.
Gemma 4 31B (free) is free for output tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.75 per 1M tokens.
Gemma 4 31B (free) has 134.14K more context (2.05x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	Gemma 4 31B (free) (Google)	Mercury 2 (Inception)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0	$0.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0	$0.75
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0	$0.62
Context Window	262.14K	128K
Release Date	2026-04-02	2026-03-04

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Gemma 4 31B (free)	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Gemma 4 31B (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	Gemma 4 31B (free)	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Gemma 4 31B (free)	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Gemma 4 31B (free)	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.

Larger context near this budget

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

No popular competitor is currently available.

Cheaper alternatives

Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.

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Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

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Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

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Google catalog

Review all tracked Google models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.

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Inception catalog

Check other Inception models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.

Open Inception models

Gemma 4 31B (free)

Gemma 4 31B Instruct is Google DeepMind's 30.7B dense multimodal model supporting text and image input with text output. Features a 256K token context window, configurable thinking/reasoning mode, native function...

Mercury 2

Mercury 2 is an extremely fast reasoning LLM, and the first reasoning diffusion LLM (dLLM). Instead of generating tokens sequentially, Mercury 2 produces and refines multiple tokens in parallel, achieving...