DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 vs Inception: Mercury 3: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (deepseek/deepseek-chat) — Automatic Disk KV Cache (0.0257/1M) & Off-Peak Promo
DeepSeek-V4 Pro (1.6T MoE) automatically caches repeated 64-token prompt prefixes on NVMe storage at $0.022/1M off-peak input tokens (vs $0.66 off-peak base) with zero code changes required, plus off-peak UTC scheduling discounts.
Inception: Mercury 3 (inception/mercury-3) 2026 Q4 Developer Promotion & Volume Credits
Official 2026 Q4 promotion for Inception: Mercury 3: Activate ephemeral prefix caching to slash input costs by 50% (down to 0.05/1M) or route via asynchronous Batch API for 50% off standard token rates.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (API ID: deepseek/deepseek-chat) vs Inception: Mercury 3 (API ID: inception/mercury-3), Inception: Mercury 3 offers lower standard input pricing at $0.1/1M tokens ($0.35/1M output), while DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 leads in cached prefix economics at $0.0257/1M tokens (50% discount). DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 achieves a 0ms faster P90 time-to-first-token latency (280ms vs 280ms).
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
Auto-discovered via live global telemetry registry.
| Specification / FinOps Dimension | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 | Inception: Mercury 3 | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | deepseek/deepseek-chat | inception/mercury-3 | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.2574 / $1.0287 | $0.1 / $0.35 | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.0257/1M (50% Off) | $0.05/1M (50% Off) | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 |
| Context Window / Max Output | 160K In / 16K Out | 977K In / 128K Out | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 (-0ms) |
DeepSeek-V3 is the latest model from the DeepSeek team, building upon the instruction following and coding abilities of the previous versions. Pre-trained on nearly 15 trillion tok
Mercury 3 is a diffusion-based language model from Inception, and the lab's most capable model to date. It is suited for agentic workflows and real-time applications where latency
Real-Time Stack Cost & Hidden-Fee Simulator (MAU / Token / Egress / GMV)
Calibrated with Reddit r/FinOps & r/devops telemetry: Includes Context Caching, Bandwidth Egress, and MoR Tax
🛰️Switch from DeepSeek: DeepSeek V3 to Inception: Mercury 3
Mercury 3 is a diffusion-based language model from Inception, and the lab's most capable model to date. It is suited for agentic workflows and real-time applications where latency Verified P90 latency of 280ms.