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DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Inception: Mercury 3

Neither wins outright: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the pick when you need image input, Inception: Mercury 3 when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Inception: Mercury 3
ProviderDeepSeekInception
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.30$0.10
Output price (per 1M tokens)$1.20$0.35
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.52$0.16
Cheaper than … of all models we track52%73%
Context window1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)1M tokens (~1,500 pages)
Larger context than … of all models81%69%
Max output per response393K tokens (~294,900 words)131K tokens (~98,300 words)
Input typestext, imagetext
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2026-10-172026-10-16
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What it costs for real workloads

Monthly cost at list price for five common workloads. Token counts per unit are stated so you can scale them to your own traffic. A workload that does not fit a model's context window is marked rather than priced.

Workload (per month)DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Inception: Mercury 3Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$46.50$14.50Inception: Mercury 3 saves $32.00
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$48.00$15.50Inception: Mercury 3 saves $32.50
Coding / tool-using agent
2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context (60,000 in / 6,000 out tokens)
$50.40$16.20Inception: Mercury 3 saves $34.20
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$31.20$10.10Inception: Mercury 3 saves $21.10
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$16.20$5.35Inception: Mercury 3 saves $10.85

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityDeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Inception: Mercury 3What it lets you do
Tool / function calling✓ Yes✓ Yescall your APIs and run agent loops
Structured output (JSON schema)✓ Yes✓ Yesreturn JSON that validates against your schema
Reasoning / thinking mode✓ Yes✓ Yesspend extra tokens thinking before answering hard problems
Image input✓ Yes—read screenshots, charts and scanned pages
Audio input——take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input——accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search——answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)✓ Yes—repeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities✓ Yes—read token confidence for classification and scoring

From each model's published parameters and input/output types. “—” means not advertised, not proven absent.

Price history

DateModelInput / 1MOutput / 1M
2026-10-19DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017$0.30$1.20

Which should you choose?

Choose DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 if…

  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 393K tokens (about 294,900 words) per response

Choose Inception: Mercury 3 if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 69% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($14.50 vs $46.50 a month for 50,000 support chats)

Frequently asked questions

Is DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 better than Inception: Mercury 3?

Neither wins outright: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 is the pick when you need image input, Inception: Mercury 3 when cost matters at scale. In short: DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 when you need image input, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities, you generate long outputs in one go; Inception: Mercury 3 when cost matters at scale.

Which is cheaper, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Inception: Mercury 3?

Inception: Mercury 3 is cheaper: $0.16 vs $0.52 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 69% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $14.50 against $46.50.

How much do DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Inception: Mercury 3 cost per million tokens?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $1.20 per 1M output tokens; Inception: Mercury 3 costs $0.10 input and $0.35 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Inception: Mercury 3?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Inception: Mercury 3.

Do DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Inception: Mercury 3 support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: yes, Inception: Mercury 3: yes. JSON-schema structured output — DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: yes, Inception: Mercury 3: yes.

Can DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Inception: Mercury 3 read images?

Only DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 accepts image input; Inception: Mercury 3 is text-only for input.

Is DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Inception: Mercury 3 free to use?

No free variant is listed for either; both are pay-per-token.

What is the maximum output length of DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Inception: Mercury 3?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 can write up to 393K tokens (about 294,900 words) per response; Inception: Mercury 3 up to 131K (about 98,300 words).

When were DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and Inception: Mercury 3 released?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 was listed on 2026-10-17; Inception: Mercury 3 on 2026-10-16.

Has the price of DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 or Inception: Mercury 3 changed?

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017: input price raised 50% ($0.15 → $0.30/1M), output price raised 50% ($0.60 → $1.20/1M) on 2026-10-19. Inception: Mercury 3: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-10-20.

About the two models

Compare DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 with other models

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Compare Inception: Mercury 3 with other models

vs AI21: Jamba Large 1.7vs AionLabs: Aion 3.5vs AionLabs: Aion 3.5 Minivs AionLabs: Aion-1.0
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