API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewMercury 2.5 Preview vs NewOx Alpha

Pick Ox Alpha 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 Ox Alpha when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ox Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5 Preview, saving $0.11 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickOx Alpha

Context-first pickOx Alpha

Sample savings$0.11100%

10x traffic gap$1.15

Ox Alpha is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $1.15. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Ox Alpha stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Mercury 2.5 Preview	Ox Alpha
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Ox Alpha	$0.28	$0
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Ox Alpha	$0.19	$0
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Ox Alpha	$0.79	$0

Cheaper input Ox Alpha $0.04 vs $0 / 1M

Ox Alpha is free for input tokens while Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Ox Alpha $0.15 vs $0 / 1M

Ox Alpha is free for output tokens while Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.15 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Ox Alpha 260K vs 1.05M

Ox Alpha has 788.58K more context (4.03x larger).

Sample workload Ox Alpha $0.11 vs $0

Ox Alpha is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.11.

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

Ox Alpha 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

Ox Alpha has the lower input price; Ox Alpha has the lower output price; Ox Alpha offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Ox Alpha 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 $0 for Ox Alpha.

Best Fit

Choose Mercury 2.5 Preview when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Choose Ox Alpha when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ox Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5 Preview, saving $0.11 (100% lower).
Ox Alpha is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.11.
Ox Alpha is free for input tokens while Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04 per 1M tokens.
Ox Alpha is free for output tokens while Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.15 per 1M tokens.
Ox Alpha has 788.58K more context (4.03x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewMercury 2.5 Preview (Inception)	NewOx Alpha (stealth)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.04	$0
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.15	$0
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.11	$0
Context Window	260K	1.05M
Release Date	2026-08-31	2026-08-20

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Ox Alpha	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Ox Alpha is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5 Preview, saving $0.11 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	Ox Alpha	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Ox Alpha	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Ox Alpha	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

DeepSeek V4 Flash Latest offers 1.31M context with $0.1 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 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

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.

Open provider hubs

Inception catalog

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

Open Inception models

stealth catalog

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

Open stealth models

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...

Ox Alpha

Ox Alpha is a reasoning model designed for coding, sustained agentic work, and production workloads. It is suited for long-horizon software engineering, complex reasoning, and workflows that combine text with...