Pairwise benchmark snapshot · Aug 16, 2026noindex (thin pair)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Inception: Mercury 2 benchmark

Name: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Inception: Mercury 2 AI benchmark comparison
Creator: CompareLLM
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This page compares MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (Moonshot) and Inception: Mercury 2 (inception) using the latest snapshots we have as of Aug 16, 2026. Inception: Mercury 2 wins on output price at $0.75/1M. MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 has the larger context window (131k tokens). Every cell below is a dated snapshot from a named public source — we do not invent missing scores, and we do not run SWE-bench ourselves.

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Moonshot

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (moonshotai/kimi-k2). Preview until a second source matches.

Elo 1,465$2.3/1M out

inception

Inception: Mercury 2

Auto-discovered from OpenRouter (inception/mercury-2). Preview until a second source matches.

$0.75/1M out

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Model A

Model B

Quick vs:vs Claude Opus 4.5 vs Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Sonnet 4.5 vs Claude 3.7 Sonnet

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (8)vsInception: Mercury 2 (2)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 8W (80%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711Inception: Mercury 2: 2W (20%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711Inception: Mercury 2 →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,465vs—

Coding Elo

1,470vs—

SWE-bench

65.8%vs—

LiveBench

62.8%vs—

GPQA Diamond

76.5%vs—

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 5WInception: Mercury 2: 0W

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

85 tok/svs—

Time to first token

240 msvs—

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 2WInception: Mercury 2: 0W

Inception: Mercury 2 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.3/1Mvs$0.75/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.25/1M

Context window

131kvs128k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 1WInception: Mercury 2: 2W

Capability Matchup Radar

Multi-Dimensional Capability Radar

Each spoke is a skill. Farther from the center is better (0–100th percentile). Tap any dot to inspect details.

Tap any node to inspect

Percentile 0–100

Dimensional AdvantageMoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 5/6

Preference Elo

No shared data

Throughput Speed

No shared data

Price Efficiency

Inception: Mercury 2

$1.55/1M cheaper

Full Benchmark Score Matrix

—

Elo

High is better

1,465

EloHigh is better

—

Code Elo

High is better

1,470

Code EloHigh is better

—

LiveBench

High is better

62.8%

LiveBenchHigh is better

—

SWE-bench

High is better

65.8%

SWE-benchHigh is better

—

GPQA

High is better

76.5%

GPQAHigh is better

—

TTFT

Low is better

240 ms

TTFTLow is better

—

Speed

High is better

85 tok/s

SpeedHigh is better

—

In $

Low is better

$0.57/1M

In $Low is better

$0.25/1M+128%

Out $

Low is better

$2.3/1M

Out $Low is better

$0.75/1M+207%

Context

High is better

+2%131k

ContextHigh is better

128k

Interactive Simulator

Workload Cost & Savings Calculator

Simulate monthly production API costs based on published $/1M tokens.

Save up to 63% with Inception: Mercury 2

Monthly Volume50M tokens/mo

Quick Presets:

Token Ratio (In vs Out)70% In / 30% Out

RAG / Search (10% out)Coding / Chat (50% out)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711$54.45 / mo

In: $19.95Out: $34.50

Inception: Mercury 2$20.00 / mo

In: $8.75Out: $11.25

Estimated Cost Delta

Inception: Mercury 2 is estimated to save $34.45/month ($413/year).

Based on 50M tokens (30% gen)

Key Selection Recommendations

1
Inception: Mercury 2:Pick Inception: Mercury 2 when you are optimizing output cost.

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatInception: Mercury 2

Lower output list price ($0.75/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionMoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Inception: Mercury 2	Lower output list price ($0.75/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711	Larger window (131k).
Screenshots / vision	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

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LIVE

Moonshot

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

Elo 1,465

LiveBench62.8%

SWE-bench65.8%

Speed85 tok/s

Output cost$2.3/1M

inception

Inception: Mercury 2

Elo n/a

LiveBench—

SWE-bench—

Speed—

Output cost$0.75/1M

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?: We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.
Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?: SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.
Which is cheaper to run in production?: Inception: Mercury 2 output tokens are $0.75/1M versus $2.3/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.
Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?: We do not have TTFT for both models.
Which has the larger context window?: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 accepts 131k tokens versus 128k.
Can I self-host either model?: Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.
Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?: No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.
What does preference Elo mean on this page?: Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 and Inception: Mercury 2 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.

Similar Head-to-Head Comparisons

All MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 matchups →|All Inception: Mercury 2 matchups →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Kimi Chat 1.5 (previous kimi)MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.5 (next kimi)Kimi K3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 Doubao Pro 1.5 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 Mistral Large 3 vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 Yi-Lightning vs MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 vs Inception: Mercury 2 benchmark

Interactive Comparison Diagram

Matchup Breakdown

Tug-of-War Matchup Matrix

Category wins across intelligence, speed, and pricing efficiency.

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (8)vsInception: Mercury 2 (2)

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 8W (80%)Overall: MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711Inception: Mercury 2: 2W (20%)

← MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711Inception: Mercury 2 →

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (5/5)

Intelligence & Reasoning

Preference Elo, Coding proficiency, SWE-bench & LiveBench accuracy

Preference Elo

1,465vs—

Coding Elo

1,470vs—

SWE-bench

65.8%vs—

LiveBench

62.8%vs—

GPQA Diamond

76.5%vs—

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 5WInception: Mercury 2: 0W

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 (2/2)

Speed & Latency

Generation throughput and time to first token responsiveness

Output speed

85 tok/svs—

Time to first token

240 msvs—

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 2WInception: Mercury 2: 0W

Inception: Mercury 2 (2/3)

Pricing & Capacity

Cost per million tokens and max context window length

Output price

$2.3/1Mvs$0.75/1M

Input price

$0.57/1Mvs$0.25/1M

Context window

131kvs128k

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711: 1WInception: Mercury 2: 2W

Recommended Workload Routing

Repo / coding agentsinsufficient data

Need SWE-bench on both sides.

High-volume chatInception: Mercury 2

Lower output list price ($0.75/1M).

Voice / low-latency UIinsufficient data

Need TTFT on both sides.

Long-document RAGMoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

Larger window (131k).

Screenshots / visionMoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Target Workload	Recommended Pick	Evaluation Rationale
Repo / coding agents	insufficient data	Need SWE-bench on both sides.
High-volume chat	Inception: Mercury 2	Lower output list price ($0.75/1M).
Voice / low-latency UI	insufficient data	Need TTFT on both sides.
Long-document RAG	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711	Larger window (131k).
Screenshots / vision	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711	MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 is the side marked multimodal in the catalog.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better overall, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?

We do not have preference Elo for both models, so we do not declare an overall winner. Compare the metrics that exist.

Which is better at coding, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?

SWE-bench is missing for at least one model, so we do not rank coding from a single number.

Which is cheaper to run in production?

Inception: Mercury 2 output tokens are $0.75/1M versus $2.3/1M. Input prices and retry rates still move the real bill.

Which is faster, MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 or Inception: Mercury 2?

We do not have TTFT for both models.

Which has the larger context window?

MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 accepts 131k tokens versus 128k.

Can I self-host either model?

Neither model is marked open-weights here. You are comparing hosted APIs.

Are these scores from CompareLLM’s own evals?

No. V1 aggregates public leaderboards (and optional first-party latency pings). Each cell names its source and date. Read /methodology.

What does preference Elo mean on this page?

Preference Elo is a crowd vote from LMArena / Arena. People see two hidden answers and pick the one they like more. The model that wins more often gets a higher Elo. That means people preferred it — not that it passed a school test. It is not SWE-bench, not accuracy, and not a number we invent. MoonshotAI: Kimi K2 0711 and Inception: Mercury 2 Elo cells are dated snapshots from the named source — we do not compute Arena ourselves.