Mercury 2 is $1.75 cheaper per 1M input tokens (87.5% lower; 8x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Mercury 2 vs Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview)
Pick Mercury 2 when budget and context both matter.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Mercury 2 when budget and context both matter.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2 is estimated at $0.62 vs $8 for Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview), saving $7.38 (92.2% lower).
Cost-first pickMercury 2
Context-first pickMercury 2
Sample savings$7.3892.2%
10x traffic gap$73.75
Mercury 2 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $73.75. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Mercury 2 stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Mercury 2 | Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Mercury 2 | $1.62 | $16 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Mercury 2 | $1 | $14 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Mercury 2 | $4 | $62 |
Mercury 2 is $11.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.8% lower; 16x difference).
Mercury 2 has 62.46K more context (1.95x larger).
Mercury 2 is $7.38 cheaper on the standard workload (92.2% 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 has the lower input price; Mercury 2 has the lower output price; Mercury 2 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mercury 2 is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.62 for Mercury 2 and $8 for Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview).
Choose Mercury 2 when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.
Choose Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2 is estimated at $0.62 vs $8 for Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview), saving $7.38 (92.2% lower).
- Mercury 2 is $7.38 cheaper on the standard workload (92.2% lower).
- Mercury 2 is $1.75 cheaper per 1M input tokens (87.5% lower; 8x difference).
- Mercury 2 is $11.25 cheaper per 1M output tokens (93.8% lower; 16x difference).
- Mercury 2 has 62.46K more context (1.95x larger).
| Feature | Mercury 2 (Inception) | Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) (Google) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.25 | $2 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.75 | $12 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.62 | $8 |
| Context Window | 128K | 65.54K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Mercury 2 | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2 is estimated at $0.62 vs $8 for Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview), saving $7.38 (92.2% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Mercury 2 | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Mercury 2 | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Mercury 2 | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Clip Preview can replace Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview) when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent offers 2M context with $5 sample workload cost.
- Grok 4.20 offers 2M context with $2.5 sample workload cost.
- GPT-5.4 offers 1.05M context with $10 sample workload cost.
- No popular competitor is currently available.
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 modelsGoogle catalog
Check other Google models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.
Open Google modelsMercury 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...
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