Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2

    Comparison

    As of August 21, 2026, Llama 4 Scout is 62% cheaper per million tokens than Mercury 2. Llama 4 Scout is $0.08 / $0.30 per million input/output tokens versus Mercury 2 at $0.25 / $0.75. Sources: https://llama.meta.com/ and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing

    Sources: Meta pricing (https://llama.meta.com/); AnotherWrapper LLM pricing (https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing)

    Better value

    Llama 4 Scout

    Meta

    $0.38blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.08

    Output

    $0.30

    10M ctx|Open Source
    62%
    cheaper

    Mercury 2

    Inception

    $1.00blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.25

    Output

    $0.75

    128K ctx|Proprietary
    Save $0.62 per million tokens by choosing Llama 4 Scout over Mercury 2.

    Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    Llama 4 Scout
    Mercury 2
    Provider
    Provider
    Meta
    Inception
    License
    Open Source
    Proprietary
    Release Date
    2025-04-05
    2026-02-24
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price-68%
    $0.08
    $0.25
    Output Price-60%
    $0.30
    $0.75
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.38
    $1.00
    Model Details
    Context Window
    10M
    128K
    Max Output Tokens
    10M
    8.2K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    76.1 tok/s
    1009 tok/s
    Benchmarks
    57.2%
    74%
    57.2%
    17.0%
    38%
    71%
    91.1%
    79.6%
    69.4%
    50.3%
    88.8%
    0%
    0.8%
    94.4%
    70.7%
    67.8%
    90.6%
    74.3%
    31.5%
    Benchmark Wins
    Llama 4 Scout 0|4 Mercury 2

    Verdict

    Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2: the bottom line

    Llama 4 Scout offers significantly lower pricing, while Mercury 2 leads on benchmark performance. Your choice depends on whether cost efficiency or raw capability matters more for your use case.

    Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 FAQ

    Which is cheaper, Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2?

    As of August 21, 2026, Llama 4 Scout is 62% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. Llama 4 Scout costs $0.08 per million input tokens and $0.30 per million output tokens ($0.38 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Mercury 2 costs $0.25 / $0.75 per million tokens ($1.00 blended). Sources: https://llama.meta.com/ and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 cost per million tokens?

    Llama 4 Scout Meta API pricing is $0.08 input and $0.30 output per million tokens via Meta. Mercury 2 Inception API pricing is $0.25 input and $0.75 output per million tokens via Inception. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2?

    Mercury 2 leads on LiveCodeBench: Llama 4 Scout at 32.8% vs Mercury 2 at 67%. SWE-bench measures real GitHub fixes; LiveCodeBench measures contest programming.

    What is the context window for Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2?

    Llama 4 Scout supports a 10M token context window, while Mercury 2 supports 128K tokens. Llama 4 Scout offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2?

    Mercury 2 leads on 4 of 4 shared benchmarks versus Llama 4 Scout's 0 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2 better for production use?

    Both Llama 4 Scout and Mercury 2 are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, Llama 4 Scout has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between Llama 4 Scout and Mercury 2 in my app?

    Yes. Call Llama 4 Scout through Meta and Mercury 2 through Inception with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published Meta API pricing and Inception API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://llama.meta.com/ and https://anotherwrapper.com/tools/llm-pricing. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for Llama 4 Scout and Mercury 2?

    Llama 4 Scout supports up to 10M output tokens per request, while Mercury 2 supports up to 8K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2?

    Llama 4 Scout runs at approximately 76.1 tokens/second while Mercury 2 runs at 1009 tokens/second. Mercury 2 is faster in raw throughput. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open Llama 4 Scout or Mercury 2 from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    Llama 4 Scout vs Mercury 2 pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. Llama 4 Scout costs $0.08/M input and $0.30/M output. Mercury 2 costs $0.25/M input and $0.75/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

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