Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash vs Inception: Mercury 3: Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash (google/gemini-3.8-flash) — Google AI Startup Credits ($350K) & 50% Cache Promo
Google DeepMind is currently subsidizing Gemini 4 Argon at 50% off standard rates ($2.00/1M input & $10.00/1M output instead of $4/$20) until November 30, 2026, alongside 95% off Context Caching ($0.10/1M) and up to $350,000 in Google for Startups Cloud/Vertex AI credits.
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 Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash (API ID: google/gemini-3.8-flash) 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 Inception: Mercury 3 leads in cached prefix economics at $0.05/1M tokens (50% discount). Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash 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 | Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash | Inception: Mercury 3 | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | google/gemini-3.8-flash | inception/mercury-3 | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.825 / $4.125 | $0.1 / $0.35 | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.165/1M (50% Off) | $0.05/1M (50% Off) | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| Context Window / Max Output | 1024K In / 64K Out | 977K In / 128K Out | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash (-0ms) |
Gemini 3.8 Flash is Google's most intelligent Flash model with significant gains from 3.7 Flash across software engineering, agentic tasks, and multi-step reasoning.
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 Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash 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.