Mercury 2.5 vs Nova Lite 1.0
API pricing, benchmark indices and specs — updated 19 October 2026.
inception · A · API-only
Input / 1M
$0.04
Output / 1M
$0.15
AA index
12.3
proprietary · 260K context
amazon · B · API-only
Input / 1M
$0.06
Output / 1M
$0.24
AA index
6.7
proprietary · 300K context
Specification comparison
Differences are highlighted; identical values are muted.
| Specification | Mercury 2.5 | Nova Lite 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | API-only (closed weights) | API-only (closed weights) |
| Parameters | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Architecture | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Context length | 260,000 | 300,000 |
| Licence | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Commercial use | Per API terms | Per API terms |
| Languages | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Downloads 30d | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Downloads all time | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Quantizations on the Hub | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| Gated | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| First seen on the Hub | n/a — API-only | n/a — API-only |
| API input price / 1M tokens | $0.04 | $0.06 |
| API output price / 1M tokens | $0.15 | $0.24 |
| Est. cost per 1M input + 1M output tokens | $0.19 | $0.30 |
| Cached input / 1M tokens | $0.004 | — |
| AA Intelligence Index | 12.3 | 6.7 |
| AA Coding Index | — | — |
| AA Agentic Index | — | — |
| Max output tokens | 65,536 | 5,120 |
| API providers | 1 | 1 |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Reasoning mode | Yes | No |
API cost
Estimated cost of 1M input + 1M output tokens via OpenRouter
Mercury 2.5
$0.19
Nova Lite 1.0
$0.30
Mercury 2.5 is 1.6× cheaper at list price.