API cost decision in 10 seconds

NewSummarize vs Mercury 2.5

Pick Summarize when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-10-13T13:12:15Z Data confirmed: 2026-10-15T01:07:46Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Summarize when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Summarize is estimated at $0.04 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5, saving $0.07 (65.2% lower).

Cost-first pickSummarize

Context-first pickSummarize

Sample savings$0.0765.2%

10x traffic gap$0.75

Summarize is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.75. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

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

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	Summarize	Mercury 2.5
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	Summarize	$0.2	$0.28
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Summarize	$0.04	$0.19
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Summarize	$0.04	$0.79

Cheaper input Tie $0.04 vs $0.04 / 1M

Both models report the same input price at $0.04 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output Summarize $0 vs $0.15 / 1M

Summarize is free for output tokens while Mercury 2.5 costs $0.15 per 1M tokens.

Larger context Summarize 1M vs 260K

Summarize has 740K more context (3.85x larger).

Sample workload Summarize $0.04 vs $0.11

Summarize is $0.07 cheaper on the standard workload (65.2% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

Summarize Calculating… Estimated API cost

Mercury 2.5 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

both models tie on input price; Summarize has the lower output price; Summarize offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Summarize is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.04 for Summarize and $0.11 for Mercury 2.5.

Best Fit

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

Choose Mercury 2.5 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, Summarize is estimated at $0.04 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5, saving $0.07 (65.2% lower).
Summarize is $0.07 cheaper on the standard workload (65.2% lower).
Both models report the same input price at $0.04 per 1M tokens.
Summarize is free for output tokens while Mercury 2.5 costs $0.15 per 1M tokens.
Summarize has 740K more context (3.85x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	NewSummarize (ScaleDown)	Mercury 2.5 (Inception)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.04	$0.04
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0	$0.15
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.04	$0.11
Context Window	1M	260K
Release Date	2026-10-13	2026-09-08

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Summarize	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Summarize is estimated at $0.04 vs $0.11 for Mercury 2.5, saving $0.07 (65.2% lower).
High-volume input processing	Tie	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Summarize	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Summarize	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

Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Ox Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Inkling Small (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

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Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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ScaleDown catalog

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Inception catalog

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

Open Inception models

Summarize

Summarize is an abstractive summarization model from ScaleDown. It condenses long text and documents into a fluent, faithful rewrite rather than lifting sentences from the source, and is suited for...

Mercury 2.5

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...