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Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) vs Inception: Mercury 3

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) is the pick when cost matters at scale, Inception: Mercury 3 when you generate long outputs in one go.

Key numbers

SpecGoogle: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Inception: Mercury 3
ProviderGoogleInception
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.05$0.10
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.20$0.35
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.09$0.16
Cheaper than … of all models we track82%73%
Context window1.0M tokens (~1,573 pages)1M tokens (~1,500 pages)
Larger context than … of all models81%69%
Max output per response66K tokens (~49,200 words)131K tokens (~98,300 words)
Input typestext, image, file, audio, videotext
Output typestexttext
Free variantNoNo
Listed since2025-07-222026-10-16
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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)Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Inception: Mercury 3Difference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$7.75$14.50Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) saves $6.75
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$8.00$15.50Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) saves $7.50
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)
$8.40$16.20Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) saves $7.80
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$5.20$10.10Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) saves $4.90
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$2.70$5.35Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) saves $2.65

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityGoogle: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch)Inception: 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✓ Yes—take speech or audio directly
File / PDF input✓ Yes—accept documents without your own parsing step
Image output——generate images, not just text
Built-in web search✓ Yes—answer from live web results
Seed (reproducible sampling)✓ Yes—repeat a generation for tests and evals
Log-probabilities——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

Which should you choose?

Choose Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 46% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($7.75 vs $14.50 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you need audio input — to take speech or audio directly; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you need file / PDF input — to accept documents without your own parsing step; Inception: Mercury 3 does not advertise it
  • you need built-in web search — to answer from live web results; 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

Choose Inception: Mercury 3 if…

  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 131K tokens (about 98,300 words) per response
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-10-16, 15 months after the other

Frequently asked questions

Is Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) better than Inception: Mercury 3?

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) is the pick when cost matters at scale, Inception: Mercury 3 when you generate long outputs in one go. In short: Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) when cost matters at scale, you need image input, you need audio input, you need file / PDF input, you need built-in web search, you need seed (reproducible sampling); Inception: Mercury 3 when you generate long outputs in one go, you want the newer model.

Which is cheaper, Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) or Inception: Mercury 3?

Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) is cheaper: $0.09 vs $0.16 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 46% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $7.75 against $14.50.

How much do Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) and Inception: Mercury 3 cost per million tokens?

Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) costs $0.05 per 1M input tokens and $0.20 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, Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) or Inception: Mercury 3?

Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch): 1.0M tokens, about 1,573 pages, against 1M (about 1,500 pages) for Inception: Mercury 3.

Do Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) and Inception: Mercury 3 support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch): yes, Inception: Mercury 3: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch): yes, Inception: Mercury 3: yes.

Can Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) or Inception: Mercury 3 read images?

Only Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) accepts image input; Inception: Mercury 3 is text-only for input.

Is Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) 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 Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) and Inception: Mercury 3?

Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) can write up to 66K tokens (about 49,200 words) per response; Inception: Mercury 3 up to 131K (about 98,300 words).

When were Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) and Inception: Mercury 3 released?

Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) was listed on 2025-07-22; Inception: Mercury 3 on 2026-10-16.

About the two models

Compare Google: Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite (batch) with other models

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Compare Inception: Mercury 3 with other models

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