Inception: Mercury 3 vs Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch): Live Promos, Pricing, Hidden Fees & Latency
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.
Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch) (google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview:batch) — 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.
In Etuki October 2026 FinOps telemetry comparing Inception: Mercury 3 (API ID: inception/mercury-3) vs Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch) (API ID: google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview:batch), 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). Inception: Mercury 3 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 | Inception: Mercury 3 | Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch) | Verified Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Vendor API ID | inception/mercury-3 | google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview:batch | Pinned Snapshot IDs |
| Standard Input / Output (per 1M) | $0.1 / $0.35 | $1 / $6 | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| Cache Read Price (per 1M) | $0.05/1M (50% Off) | $0.5/1M (50% Off) | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| Context Window / Max Output | 977K In / 128K Out | 1024K In / 64K Out | Inception: Mercury 3 |
| P90 First-Token / Edge Latency | 280ms | 280ms | Inception: Mercury 3 (-0ms) |
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
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is Google’s frontier reasoning model, delivering enhanced software engineering performance, improved agentic reliability, and more efficient token usage acro
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 Inception: Mercury 3 to Google: Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (batch)
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview is Google’s frontier reasoning model, delivering enhanced software engineering performance, improved agentic reliability, and more efficient token usage acro Verified P90 latency of 280ms.