API cost decision in 10 seconds
Mercury 2 vs Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)
Pick Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) when budget is the priority.
Pricing data updated:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) when budget is the priority.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.63 for Mercury 2, saving $0.63 (100% lower).
Cost-first pickNemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free)
Context-first pickTie
Sample savings$0.63100%
10x traffic gap$6.25
The reported context window is tied, so cost and provider fit carry more weight. 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
Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Mercury 2 | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | $1.63 | $0 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | $1 | $0 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | $4 | $0 |
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
Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) has the lower input price, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) has the lower output price, and Tie offers the larger context window.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.63 for Mercury 2 and $0 for Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free).
Choose Mercury 2 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.
Choose Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
| Feature | Mercury 2 (Inception) | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) (NVIDIA) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.25 | $0 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.75 | $0 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.63 | $0 |
| Context Window | 128K | 128K |
| Release Date | 2026-03-04 | 2025-10-28 |
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...
NVIDIA Nemotron Nano 2 VL is a 12-billion-parameter open multimodal reasoning model designed for video understanding and document intelligence. It introduces a hybrid Transformer-Mamba architecture, combining transformer-level accuracy with Mamba’s...
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.63 for Mercury 2, saving $0.63 (100% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts or retrieved passages dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Nemotron Nano 12B 2 VL (free) | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Tie | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages and source files. |