Mercury 3 API pricing
Inception · Budget price tier · released 2026-10. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-10-22.
Promotional rate. The price we quote is 50% off Inception's standard $0.20 per 1M input tokens and $0.70 per 1M output tokens, and a promotion can end without notice.
Mercury 3 has held the same list price since 2026-10-20 and is the 63rd cheapest of 164 models in the Budget price tier. Only one host, Inception, sells it, so there is no second price to shop. No Arena score is published for it, so it carries no Efficiency score and cannot hold the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $0.10 per 1M tokens
- Output: $0.35 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.01 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 1M tokens
- Arena ELO: Not published
Market position
On blended price ($0.275 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 62% of models in the Budget price tier: 63rd cheapest of 164. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 80% of priced text models in the catalogue: 63rd cheapest of 308.
Licence, size and capabilities
No licence is recorded for Mercury 3, so this page does not say whether it can be self-hosted. Its parameter count is not published. Listed capabilities: Text, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 1M context window once costs $0.10 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 1 host. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
Inception is the only host with a published rate, $0.10 input / $0.35 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| Inception (model maker, price we quote) | $0.10 | $0.35 |
List prices as published on 2026-10-22, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown. Inception's listing is a promotional rate: 50% off its standard rate.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where Inception publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $24 – $33 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $35 – $48 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $133 – $142 |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $84 – $88 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $87 – $100 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $32 – $36 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $43 – $45 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $127 – $165 |
Price history
Mercury 3 entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-20; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.10 input / $0.35 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-20. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
Alternatives to Mercury 3
- Next cheaper model in the Budget price tier: Gemma 3 27B (Google) at $0.269 blended, 2% less.
- Next more expensive: GPT-5 Nano (OpenAI) at $0.295 blended, 7% more.
Other models from Inception
Inception has 2 other models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Mercury 2.5: $0.04 / $0.15
- Mercury 2: $0.25 / $0.75
All 3 Inception models and prices
Common questions about Mercury 3 pricing
- How much does Mercury 3 cost?
- Mercury 3 costs $0.10 per 1M input tokens and $0.35 per 1M output tokens. That is the model maker's own rate (Inception). Prices as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Which host is cheapest for Mercury 3?
- Inception is the only host with a published rate, $0.10 input / $0.35 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-10-22.
- Does Mercury 3 offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.01 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-10-22. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Mercury 3 cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $33 on Mercury 3 at the list price quoted on 2026-10-22.
- Can Mercury 3 be self-hosted?
- No licence is recorded for Mercury 3, so this page does not say whether it can be self-hosted.
- Has the price of Mercury 3 changed?
- Mercury 3 entered our daily price archive on 2026-10-20; tracking began on 2026-08-15. It listed at $0.10 input / $0.35 output per 1M tokens that day. No list price change since 2026-10-20. Last checked against the 2026-10-22 snapshot.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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