API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMercury 2.5 Preview vs Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)

Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-09-01T15:07:22Z Data confirmed: 2026-09-01T17:07:29Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $1.89 (94.2% lower).

Cost-first pickMercury 2.5 Preview

Context-first pickMercury 2.5 Preview

Sample savings$1.8994.2%

10x traffic gap$18.85

Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $18.85. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Mercury 2.5 Preview stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mercury 2.5 Preview	Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Mercury 2.5 Preview	$0.28	$4
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Mercury 2.5 Preview	$0.19	$3.5
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Mercury 2.5 Preview	$0.79	$15.5

Cheaper input Mercury 2.5 Preview $0.04 vs $0.5 / 1M

Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.46 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92% lower; 12.5x difference).

Cheaper output Mercury 2.5 Preview $0.15 vs $3 / 1M

Mercury 2.5 Preview is $2.85 cheaper per 1M output tokens (95% lower; 20x difference).

Larger context Mercury 2.5 Preview 260K vs 131.07K

Mercury 2.5 Preview has 128.93K more context (1.98x larger).

Sample workload Mercury 2.5 Preview $0.11 vs $2

Mercury 2.5 Preview is $1.89 cheaper on the standard workload (94.2% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Mercury 2.5 Preview Calculating… Estimated API cost

Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) 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

Mercury 2.5 Preview has the lower input price; Mercury 2.5 Preview has the lower output price; Mercury 2.5 Preview offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.11 for Mercury 2.5 Preview and $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image).

Best Fit

Choose Mercury 2.5 Preview when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) 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, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $1.89 (94.2% lower).
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $1.89 cheaper on the standard workload (94.2% lower).
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.46 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92% lower; 12.5x difference).
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $2.85 cheaper per 1M output tokens (95% lower; 20x difference).
Mercury 2.5 Preview has 128.93K more context (1.98x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewMercury 2.5 Preview (Inception)	Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) (Google)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.04	$0.5
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.15	$3
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.11	$2
Context Window	260K	131.07K
Release Date	2026-08-31	2026-06-18

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Mercury 2.5 Preview	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $2 for Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image), saving $1.89 (94.2% lower).
High-volume input processing	Mercury 2.5 Preview	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Mercury 2.5 Preview	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Mercury 2.5 Preview	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
Lyria 3 Clip Preview can replace Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.

Larger context near this budget

Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 offers 1.31M context with $0.15 sample workload cost.
GLM 5.3 Flash offers 1.31M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
GPT-5.6 Luna · OpenAI · #2
GLM 5.3 Flash · Z.ai · #3
MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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Inception catalog

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Google catalog

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Mercury 2.5 Preview

Mercury 2.5 is the fastest reasoning LLM, and the latest diffusion LLM (dLLM) from Inception. Instead of generating tokens sequentially, Mercury 2.5 produces and refines multiple tokens in parallel, achieving...

Nano Banana 2 (Gemini 3.1 Flash Image)

Gemini 3.1 Flash Image, a.k.a. "Nano Banana 2," is Google’s latest state of the art image generation and editing model, delivering Pro-level visual quality at Flash speed. It combines advanced...