Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (46.7% lower; 1.88x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
New🔥GLM 5.3 Flash vs NewMercury 2.5 Preview
Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview for lower cost; pick GLM 5.3 Flash only if the larger context window matters more.
Page updated:
Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
Pick Mercury 2.5 Preview for lower cost; pick GLM 5.3 Flash only if the larger context window matters more.
On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $0.2 for GLM 5.3 Flash, saving $0.09 (42.5% lower).
Cost-first pickMercury 2.5 Preview
Context-first pickGLM 5.3 Flash
Sample savings$0.0942.5%
10x traffic gap$0.85
GLM 5.3 Flash has more context, but Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $0.09 on the standard workload. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.85. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Mercury 2.5 Preview stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | GLM 5.3 Flash | Mercury 2.5 Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $0.5 | $0.28 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $0.33 | $0.19 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | Mercury 2.5 Preview | $1.32 | $0.79 |
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
GLM 5.3 Flash has 1.05M more context (5.04x larger).
Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.09 cheaper on the standard workload (42.5% 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 2.5 Preview has the lower input price; Mercury 2.5 Preview has the lower output price; GLM 5.3 Flash offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.2 for GLM 5.3 Flash and $0.11 for Mercury 2.5 Preview.
Choose GLM 5.3 Flash when you care most about larger context window.
Choose Mercury 2.5 Preview when you care most about lower input-token price, and lower output-token price.
- On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $0.2 for GLM 5.3 Flash, saving $0.09 (42.5% lower).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.09 cheaper on the standard workload (42.5% lower).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (46.7% lower; 1.88x difference).
- Mercury 2.5 Preview is $0.1 cheaper per 1M output tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
- GLM 5.3 Flash has 1.05M more context (5.04x larger).
| Feature | New🔥GLM 5.3 Flash (Z.ai) | NewMercury 2.5 Preview (Inception) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.075 | $0.04 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.25 | $0.15 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.2 | $0.11 |
| Context Window | 1.31M | 260K |
| Release Date | ||
| Popularity | #3 |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Mercury 2.5 Preview | On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Mercury 2.5 Preview is estimated at $0.11 vs $0.2 for GLM 5.3 Flash, saving $0.09 (42.5% lower). |
| High-volume input processing | Mercury 2.5 Preview | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | Mercury 2.5 Preview | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | GLM 5.3 Flash | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- GLM 5.2 (free) can replace GLM 5.3 Flash when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- GLM 4.5 Air (free) can replace GLM 5.3 Flash when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- GLM 4 32B can replace GLM 5.3 Flash when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.15.
- No larger-context model is currently tracked within a close sample-cost band.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 · DeepSeek · #1
- GPT-5.6 Luna · OpenAI · #2
- MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #4
- Hy3 · Tencent · #5
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 hubsZ.ai catalog
Review all tracked Z.ai models before deciding whether this matchup is the right shortlist.
Open Z.ai modelsInception catalog
Check other Inception models with comparable pricing, context, or release timing.
Open Inception modelsGLM-5.3-Flash is a native multimodal model from Z.ai. It is suited for efficient coding and long-horizon agent tasks. Its hybrid sparse and linear attention architecture maintains accurate long-context behavior while...
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...