API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewLaguna M.1 (free) vs Mercury 2

Pick Laguna M.1 (free) when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T10:03:26Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T13:08:02Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Laguna M.1 (free) when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Laguna M.1 (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickLaguna M.1 (free)

Context-first pickLaguna M.1 (free)

Sample savings$0.62100%

10x traffic gap$6.25

Laguna M.1 (free) is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. 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

Same prices, different token mixes.

Laguna M.1 (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Laguna M.1 (free)	Mercury 2
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Laguna M.1 (free)	$0	$1.62
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Laguna M.1 (free)	$0	$1
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Laguna M.1 (free)	$0	$4

Cheaper input Laguna M.1 (free) $0 vs $0.25 / 1M

Laguna M.1 (free) is free for input tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Laguna M.1 (free) $0 vs $0.75 / 1M

Laguna M.1 (free) is free for output tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.75 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Laguna M.1 (free) 131.07K vs 128K

Laguna M.1 (free) has 3.07K more context (1.02x larger).

Sample workload Laguna M.1 (free) $0 vs $0.62

Laguna M.1 (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.62.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Laguna M.1 (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Mercury 2 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

Laguna M.1 (free) has the lower input price; Laguna M.1 (free) has the lower output price; Laguna M.1 (free) offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Laguna M.1 (free) is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for Laguna M.1 (free) and $0.62 for Mercury 2.

Best Fit

Choose Laguna M.1 (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Mercury 2 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, Laguna M.1 (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).
Laguna M.1 (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.62.
Laguna M.1 (free) is free for input tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per 1M tokens.
Laguna M.1 (free) is free for output tokens while Mercury 2 costs $0.75 per 1M tokens.
Laguna M.1 (free) has 3.07K more context (1.02x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewLaguna M.1 (free) (Poolside)	Mercury 2 (Inception)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0	$0.25
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0	$0.75
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0	$0.62
Context Window	131.07K	128K
Release Date	2026-04-28	2026-03-04

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Laguna M.1 (free)	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Laguna M.1 (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.62 for Mercury 2, saving $0.62 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	Laguna M.1 (free)	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Laguna M.1 (free)	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Laguna M.1 (free)	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

Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite offers 1.05M context with $0.3 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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Cheaper alternatives

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Open cheapest models

Larger context alternatives

Find models with larger context windows for RAG, long documents, and codebase review.

Open largest context models

Provider catalogs

Compare models within provider hubs before choosing a final API vendor.

Open provider hubs

Poolside catalog

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

Open Poolside models

Inception catalog

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

Open Inception models

Laguna M.1 (free)

Laguna M.1 is the flagship coding agent model from [Poolside](https://poolside.ai), optimized for complex software engineering tasks. Designed for agentic coding workflows, it supports tool calling and reasoning, with a 128K...

Mercury 2

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...