Side-by-side comparison of pricing, 12 benchmarks, and generation speed.
| Metric | North Mini Code | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input ($/M tokens) | $0 | $0.25 |
| Output ($/M tokens) | $0 | $0.75 |
Verdict. North Mini Code wins the overall benchmark matchup 2–0 across 2 overlapping categories, but raw benchmark score is only one input to the decision.
Pricing. Pricing varies significantly between these models — check the table above for the exact per-token rates. Many production workloads actually surface input-token cost (retrieval-augmented prompts, code-context windows), so factor both directions.
Strengths. North Mini Code is strongest on Coding Index (36.5), Intelligence Index (12.8). Mercury 2 leads on Coding Index (31.1), Intelligence Index (11.5).
Speed. On throughput, Mercury 2 generates tokens at 881 tok/s versus 84 tok/s — about 90% faster. On time-to-first-token, North Mini Code responds in 400ms vs 4600ms, which matters most for chat-style UIs.
Provider. Cohere and Inception sell to overlapping but distinct developer audiences: Cohere tends to ship frontier reasoning models with premium positioning, while Inception often prices more aggressively. Your existing vendor relationships, billing, and SLA preferences may matter as much as the raw numbers above.
Workload cost. Workload scenarios (per million requests at 30M input + 15M output tokens): North Mini Code costs $0.00 ($0/year); Mercury 2 costs $18.75 ($225/year). At a smaller 5M-input/2M-output scale (single-developer tool or prototype): North Mini Code ≈ $0.00/run, Mercury 2 ≈ $2.75/run. At agent/realtime scale (200M input / 100M output per million requests): North Mini Code ≈ $0/run, Mercury 2 ≈ $125/run. North Mini Code becomes more attractive at higher volume — the absolute per-token pricing difference compounds when you ship at scale.
Recommendation. Both models have legitimate use cases — the right answer depends on whether you are optimizing for benchmark ceiling, latency, or unit cost. Start with the cheaper / faster model, evaluate against your specific task, and only switch if the upgrade shows a meaningful lift.
Head-to-head deltas
Data from Artificial Analysis API — 12 benchmarks
North Mini Code is cheaper overall. Its blended price (3:1 input/output ratio) is $0.00/M tokens vs $0.38/M for Mercury 2.
North Mini Code wins 2 out of 12 benchmarks compared to 0 for Mercury 2. See the detailed benchmark chart above for per-category results.
Mercury 2 generates tokens faster at 881 tok/s vs 84 tok/s. North Mini Code also has lower time-to-first-token (0.40s vs 4.60s).
Choose based on your priorities: North Mini Code for lower cost, North Mini Code for stronger benchmark performance, and Mercury 2 for faster generation. For latency-sensitive apps, check the TTFT comparison above.