| Signal | Mercury 2 | Delta | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|---|
Capabilities | 67 | -- | |
Benchmarks | 60 | +1 | |
Pricing | 99 | +2 | |
Context window size | 73 | -13 | |
Recency | 100 | +4 | |
Output Capacity | 78 | -2 | |
| Overall Result | 3 wins | of 6 | 2 wins |
Score History
60.5
current score
Mercury 2
right now
60.1
current score
Inception
Amazon
Mercury 2 saves you $92.50/month
That's $1110.00/year compared to Nova 2 Lite at your current usage level of 100K calls/month.
| Metric | Mercury 2 | Nova 2 Lite | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | 61 | 60 | Mercury 2 |
| Rank | #138 | #140 | Mercury 2 |
| Quality Rank | #138 | #140 | Mercury 2 |
| Adoption Rank | #138 | #140 | Mercury 2 |
| Parameters | -- | -- | -- |
| Context Window | 128K | 1000K | Nova 2 Lite |
| Pricing | $0.25/$0.75/M | $0.30/$2.50/M | -- |
| Signal Scores | |||
| Capabilities | 67 | 67 | Mercury 2 |
| Benchmarks | 60 | 58 | Mercury 2 |
| Pricing | 99 | 98 | Mercury 2 |
| Context window size | 73 | 86 | Nova 2 Lite |
| Recency | 100 | 96 | Mercury 2 |
| Output Capacity | 78 | 80 | Nova 2 Lite |
Our score (0-100) is driven by benchmark performance (90%) from Arena Elo ratings, MMLU, GPQA, HumanEval, SWE-bench, and 15+ standardized evaluations. Capabilities and context window serve as tiebreakers (10%). Learn more about our methodology.
Scores 61/100 (rank #138), placing it in the top 53% of all 290 models tracked.
Scores 60/100 (rank #140), placing it in the top 52% of all 290 models tracked.
With only a 0-point gap, these models are in the same performance tier. The practical difference in output quality is minimal - your choice should depend on pricing, latency requirements, and specific feature needs.
Mercury 2 offers 64% better value per quality point. At 1M tokens/day, you'd spend $15.00/month with Mercury 2 vs $42.00/month with Nova 2 Lite - a $27.00 monthly difference.
Both models have comparable response speeds. For most applications, the latency difference is negligible.
When latency matters most: Interactive chatbots, IDE code completion, real-time translation, and user-facing applications where response time directly impacts experience. For batch processing, background summarization, or offline analysis, latency is less critical.
Code generation & review
Based on overall model capabilities and architecture for coding tasks like generating functions, debugging, and refactoring
Customer support chatbot
Suitable for user-facing chat with competitive response times. Mercury 2 also offers lower per-token costs for high-volume support
Long document analysis
Larger context window (1000K tokens) can process longer documents, contracts, and research papers in a single pass
Batch data extraction
Lower output pricing ($0.75/M) reduces costs when processing thousands of records daily
Creative writing & content
Higher overall composite score (61/100) correlates with better nuance, coherence, and style in long-form content
Image understanding & OCR
Supports vision input - can analyze screenshots, diagrams, photos, and scanned documents directly
Mercury 2 and Nova 2 Lite are extremely close in overall performance (only 0.3999999999999986 points apart). Your best choice depends entirely on which specific strengths matter most for your use case.
Best for Quality
Mercury 2
Marginally better benchmark scores; both are excellent
Best for Cost
Mercury 2
64% lower pricing; better value at scale
Best for Reliability
Mercury 2
Higher uptime and faster response speeds
Best for Prototyping
Mercury 2
Stronger community support and better developer experience
Best for Production
Mercury 2
Wider enterprise adoption and proven at scale
by Inception
| Capability | Mercury 2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Vision (Image Input)differs | ||
| Function Calling | ||
| Streaming | ||
| JSON Modediffers | ||
| Reasoning | ||
| Web Search | ||
| Image Output |
Inception
Amazon
Mercury 2 saves you $2.19/month
That's 62% cheaper than Nova 2 Lite at 1,000 tokens/request and 100 requests/day.
Assumes 60% input / 40% output token ratio per request. Actual costs may vary based on your usage pattern.
| Parameter | Mercury 2 | Nova 2 Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Context Window | 128K | 1M |
| Max Output Tokens | 50,000 | 65,535 |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Created | Mar 4, 2026 | Dec 2, 2025 |