Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 1B Instruct or Mercury 2.5?

Llama 3.2 1B Instruct, at $0.04 per million tokens against $0.27 for Mercury 2.5, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.

Where is each one cheapest?

Llama 3.2 1B Instruct: $0.04 at Inference. Mercury 2.5: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.27 is the number to beat.

Can I buy both from one provider?

Yes. 2 providers sell both: OpenRouter, Kilo Gateway. The cheapest of them for the two together is OpenRouter.

Which holds more context?

Mercury 2.5, at 260k tokens against 60k.

Llama 3.2 1B Instruct vs Mercury 2.5.

model vs model · prices as of 16 Sept 2026

Mercury 2.5 takes 3 of 5 rounds against Llama 3.2 1B Instruct. Llama 3.2 1B Instruct counters on price: $0.04 per million tokens against $0.27, for 60k context instead of 260k.

Llama 3.2 1B Instruct

$0.04/M tokens

cheapest we can explain, at Inference · $0.0066 per 1,000 pages

60k context · open weights

Inceptionwins 3 rounds

Mercury 2.5

$0.27/M tokens

Inception list price, nothing below it is accounted for · $0.033 per 1,000 pages

260k context · tool calling

List price in (lower wins)

$0.03/M

$0.04/M

List price out (lower wins)

$0.20/M

$0.15/M

Cheapest we can explain (lower wins)

$0.04/M at Inference

none below list

Standard price (lower wins)

$0.28/M

$0.27/M

Cost per 1,000 pages (lower wins)

$0.0066

$0.033

Context

60k tokens

260k tokens

Open weights

yes

Tool calling

yes

Structured output

yes

Reads images

Reasoning

yes

Released

25 Sept 2024

8 Sept 2026

Providers selling it

Price we measure against

OpenRouter

the maker's own

Trains on your prompts (no is better)

not stated

no provider to check

Providers selling both · 2

OpenRouter$0.28 / $0.27
Kilo Gateway$0.28 / $1.35

Llama 3.2 1B Instruct then Mercury 2.5, per million tokens

Go further

open in the compare tool →every price for Llama 3.2 1B Instruct every price for Mercury 2.5

Add a third or fourth model, or switch the weighting, in the tool.

What moved in the last seven days

Mercury 2.5Nous Portal$0.03 / $0.12 $0.04 / $0.1525% dearer · 16 Sept 2026

Frequently asked

Which is cheaper, Llama 3.2 1B Instruct or Mercury 2.5?: Llama 3.2 1B Instruct, at $0.04 per million tokens against $0.27 for Mercury 2.5, three parts input to one part output, read on 16 Sept 2026.
Where is each one cheapest?: Llama 3.2 1B Instruct: $0.04 at Inference. Mercury 2.5: nobody goes below the maker's own price with a reason we can point at, so $0.27 is the number to beat.
Can I buy both from one provider?: Yes. 2 providers sell both: OpenRouter, Kilo Gateway. The cheapest of them for the two together is OpenRouter.
Which holds more context?: Mercury 2.5, at 260k tokens against 60k.

Prices exclude tax and are per million tokens, read 16 Sept 2026 from each provider's own catalog. The standard price blends three parts input to one part output; a page is 600 tokens in and 60 out. Bars are scaled to the larger value in each row.