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Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is the pick when you need image input, Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview when cost matters at scale.

Key numbers

SpecGoogle: Gemma 4 26B A4BInception: Mercury 2.5 Preview
ProviderGoogleInception
Input price (per 1M tokens)$0.07$0.04
Output price (per 1M tokens)$0.23$0.15
Blended price (3:1 input/output)$0.11$0.07
Cheaper than … of all models we track80%85%
Context window262K tokens (~393 pages)260K tokens (~390 pages)
Larger context than … of all models48%47%
Max output per response236K tokens (~176,900 words)66K tokens (~49,200 words)
Input typesimage, text, videotext
Output typestexttext
Free variantYesNo
Listed since2026-04-032026-08-31
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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: Gemma 4 26B A4BInception: Mercury 2.5 PreviewDifference
Customer-support chatbot
50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation (1,500 in / 400 out tokens)
$9.56$6.00Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $3.56
RAG search over documents
20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages (6,000 in / 500 out tokens)
$10.35$6.30Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $4.05
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)
$10.80$6.60Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $4.20
Batch summarisation
10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page (8,000 in / 600 out tokens)
$6.75$4.10Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $2.65
Long-document analysis
500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass (100,000 in / 2,000 out tokens)
$3.60$2.15Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview saves $1.45

Capabilities side by side

CapabilityGoogle: Gemma 4 26B A4BInception: Mercury 2.5 PreviewWhat 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
2026-10-17Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-10-13Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-10-10Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-10-06Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-10-03Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-09-29Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.08$0.26
2026-09-26Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.07$0.23
2026-09-13Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B$0.09$0.30

Which should you choose?

Choose Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B if…

  • you need image input — to read screenshots, charts and scanned pages; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview does not advertise it
  • you need seed (reproducible sampling) — to repeat a generation for tests and evals; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview does not advertise it
  • you need log-probabilities — to read token confidence for classification and scoring; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview does not advertise it
  • you generate long outputs in one go — up to 236K tokens (about 176,900 words) per response
  • you want to prototype at zero cost — a free variant is listed

Choose Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview if…

  • cost matters at scale — it is 37% cheaper on a typical 3:1 input/output mix ($6.00 vs $9.56 a month for 50,000 support chats)
  • you want the newer model — released 2026-08-31, 5 months after the other

Frequently asked questions

Is Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B better than Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Neither wins outright: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B is the pick when you need image input, Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview when cost matters at scale. In short: Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B when you need image input, you need seed (reproducible sampling), you need log-probabilities, you generate long outputs in one go, you want to prototype at zero cost; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview when cost matters at scale, you want the newer model.

Which is cheaper, Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview is cheaper: $0.07 vs $0.11 per 1M tokens at a typical 3:1 input/output mix, 37% less. For 50,000 support conversations a month that is $6.00 against $9.56.

How much do Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview cost per million tokens?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.23 per 1M output tokens; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview costs $0.04 input and $0.15 output. Output tokens are billed separately, so long answers shift the gap.

Which has the bigger context window, Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: 262K tokens, about 393 pages, against 260K (about 390 pages) for Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview.

Do Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview support function calling and JSON output?

Tool calling — Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: yes, Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview: yes. JSON-schema structured output — Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: yes, Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview: yes.

Can Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview read images?

Only Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B accepts image input; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview is text-only for input.

Is Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview free to use?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B has a free variant (google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it:free). Free variants usually carry tighter rate limits.

What is the maximum output length of Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B can write up to 236K tokens (about 176,900 words) per response; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview up to 66K (about 49,200 words).

When were Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B and Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview released?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B was listed on 2026-04-03; Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview on 2026-08-31.

Has the price of Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B or Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview changed?

Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B: input price cut 12% ($0.08 → $0.07/1M), output price cut 12% ($0.26 → $0.23/1M) on 2026-10-17 (11 price changes since 2026-08-06). Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview: price unchanged since we started tracking it on 2026-09-02.

About the two models

Compare Google: Gemma 4 26B A4B with other models

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Compare Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview 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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