Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.46 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92% lower; 12.5x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
NewMercury 2.5 Preview vs Nemotron 3 Ultra
Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview for lower cost; pick Nemotron 3 Ultra only if the larger context window matters more.
Page updated:
Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview for lower cost; pick Nemotron 3 Ultra only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $1.6 for Nemotron 3 Ultra, saving $1.49 (92.8% lower).
Cost-first pickMercury 2.5 Preview
Context-first pickNemotron 3 Ultra
Sample savings$1.4992.8%
10x traffic gap$14.85
Nemotron 3 Ultra has more context, but Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $1.49 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $14.85. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
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 | Nemotron 3 Ultra |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $0.28 | $3.6 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $0.19 | $2.7 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $0.79 | $11.5 |
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $2.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.2% lower; 14.7x difference).
Nemotron 3 Ultra has 2.14K more context (1.01x larger).
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $1.49 cheaper on the standard workload (92.8% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
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
Mercury 2.5 Preview has the lower input price; Mercury 2.5 Preview has the lower output price; Nemotron 3 Ultra 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 $1.6 for Nemotron 3 Ultra.
Choose Mercury 2.5 Preview when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
Choose Nemotron 3 Ultra when you care most about larger context window.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $1.6 for Nemotron 3 Ultra, saving $1.49 (92.8% lower).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $1.49 cheaper on the standard workload (92.8% lower).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.46 cheaper per 1M input tokens (92% lower; 12.5x difference).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $2.05 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.2% lower; 14.7x difference).
- Nemotron 3 Ultra has 2.14K more context (1.01x larger).
| Feature | NewMercury 2.5 Preview (Inception) | Nemotron 3 Ultra (NVIDIA) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.04 | $0.5 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.15 | $2.2 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.11 | $1.6 |
| Context Window | 260K | 262.14K |
| Release Date |
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 $1.6 for Nemotron 3 Ultra, saving $1.49 (92.8% 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 | Nemotron 3 Ultra | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (free) can replace Nemotron 3 Ultra when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (free) can replace Nemotron 3 Ultra when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Nemotron 3.5 Content Safety (free) can replace Nemotron 3 Ultra when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Nemotron 3 Nano Omni (free) can replace Nemotron 3 Ultra when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- 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.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.1 sample workload cost.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 1.31M context with $0.25 sample workload cost.
- 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
Review low-cost models sorted by a standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Open cheapest modelsLarger context alternatives
Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.
Open largest context modelsProvider catalogs
Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.
Open provider hubsInception catalog
Review all tracked Inception models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.
Open Inception modelsNVIDIA catalog
Check other NVIDIA models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.
Open NVIDIA modelsMercury 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...
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Ultra is an open frontier-reasoning and orchestration model from NVIDIA, with 55B active parameters out of 550B total (MoE). Built on a hybrid Transformer-Mamba mixture-of-experts architecture, it...