Mercury 3
Summary
Mercury 3 is a proprietary language model from Inception Labs, released on 16 Oct 2026. It accepts text and generates text, with a 1M-token context window and up to 131K output tokens per response. As of 21 Oct 2026, the lowest listed API price is $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.35 per million output tokens (Inception API), across 3 providers we track.
Inception's diffusion reasoning model for chat, multi-step problem solving, and tool use
Last verified 21 Oct 2026. Every figure on this page links to its source.
Specifications
| Developer | Inception Labs |
|---|---|
| Release date | 16 Oct 2026 [models.dev] |
| Status | Generally available [models.dev] |
| Weights | Proprietary (API only) [models.dev] |
| Context window | 1M (1,000,000 tokens) [models.dev] |
| Max output | 131K tokens [models.dev] |
| Input | Text [models.dev] |
| Output | Text [models.dev] |
| Reasoning mode | Yes [models.dev] |
| Tool calling | Yes [models.dev] |
| Structured output | Yes [models.dev] |
Mercury 3 API pricing by provider
USD per million tokens. Sorted by input price.
| Provider | Input | Output | Cached input | Context | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inception API mercury-3 | $0.10 | $0.35 | $0.01 | 1M | models.dev, 21 Oct 2026 |
| OpenRouter inception/mercury-3 | $0.10 | $0.35 | $0.01 | 1M | OpenRouter, 21 Oct 2026 |
| Vercel AI Gateway inception/mercury-3 | $0.10 | $0.35 | $0.01 | 1M | models.dev, 21 Oct 2026 |
Frequently asked questions
What is the context window of Mercury 3?
Mercury 3 has a context window of 1,000,000 tokens (1M) and can generate up to 131,072 tokens in a single response, according to models.dev.
How much does the Mercury 3 API cost?
Through Inception API, Mercury 3 costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.35 per million output tokens. Prices last verified 21 Oct 2026.
Is Mercury 3 open source?
No. Mercury 3 is a proprietary model; Inception Labs has not released its weights. It is available through APIs including Inception API, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway.
When was Mercury 3 released?
Inception Labs released Mercury 3 on 16 Oct 2026, according to models.dev.
Which providers offer Mercury 3?
We track Mercury 3 on 3 providers: Inception API, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway.
Change history
- Now listed on Vercel AI Gateway
- Now listed on OpenRouter
- Added to the directory
- Now listed on Inception API