AI model comparison
Gemma 4 31B vs Mercury 2
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
Gemma 4 31B
Gemma 4 31B Instruct is Google DeepMind's 30.7B dense multimodal model supporting text and image input with text output.
- Input / 1M
- $0.09
- Output / 1M
- $0.34
- Context
- 262K
Inception
Mercury 2
Mercury 2 is an extremely fast reasoning LLM, and the first reasoning diffusion LLM (dLLM).
- Input / 1M
- $0.25
- Output / 1M
- $0.75
- Context
- 128K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
Gemma 4 31B
2.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
Gemma 4 31B
14.7 vs 13.8 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Gemma 4 31B
262K vs 128K tokens
Newer release
Gemma 4 31B
Released April 2, 2026
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
Gemma 4 31B14.7Mercury 213.8Coding index
Gemma 4 31B43.4Mercury 231.1Agentic index
Gemma 4 31B4.2Mercury 21.6Pricing
Gemma 4 31B vs Mercury 2 API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | Gemma 4 31B | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.09 | $0.25 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.34 | $0.75 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.05 | $0.03 |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
Gemma 4 31B$0.35Mercury 2$0.88Coding task
30K in, 4K out
Gemma 4 31B$4.06$2.86 cachedMercury 2$10.50$3.75 cachedLong document summary
150K in, 2K out
Gemma 4 31B$14.18$8.18 cachedMercury 2$39$5.25 cachedSpecs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | Gemma 4 31B | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 262K tokens | 128K tokens |
| Max output | 16K tokens | 50K tokens |
| Input types | Image, Text, Video | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | Not available | High, Medium, Low, None |
| Default reasoning effort | Not available | Medium |
| Release date | April 2, 2026 | March 4, 2026 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | Gemma 4 31B | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
Gemma 4 31BView full model details- Gemma 4 31B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- Gemma 4 31B vs gpt-oss-120b
- Gemma 4 31B vs Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite
- Gemma 4 31B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Gemma 4 31B vs Gemma 4 26B A4B
- Gemma 4 31B vs GPT-5 Nano
- Gemma 4 31B vs Ling 3.0 Flash
- Gemma 4 31B vs DeepSeek V3.1
- Gemma 4 31B vs Mercury 2.5
- Gemma 4 31B vs Qwen3.5-9B
- Gemma 4 31B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning
- Gemma 4 31B vs Granite 4.2 8B
- Gemma 4 31B vs GLM 4.7 Flash
- Gemma 4 31B vs DeepSeek V3.2 Exp
- Gemma 4 31B vs Nemotron 3 Super
- Gemma 4 31B vs Step 3.5 Flash
- Gemma 4 31B vs DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus
Our take
Gemma 4 31B is 2.5x cheaper for a typical chat. Gemma 4 31B scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (14.7 vs 13.8). Gemma 4 31B has the larger context window (262K vs 128K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemma 4 31B or Mercury 2 cheaper?
Gemma 4 31B is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). Gemma 4 31B costs $0.09 per 1M input tokens and $0.34 per 1M output tokens, while Mercury 2 costs $0.25 per 1M input tokens and $0.75 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, Gemma 4 31B or Mercury 2?
Gemma 4 31B supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 128K for Mercury 2.
Is Gemma 4 31B smarter than Mercury 2?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Gemma 4 31B scores 14.7 and Mercury 2 scores 13.8, putting Gemma 4 31B ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use Gemma 4 31B and Mercury 2 at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see Gemma 4 31B and Mercury 2 answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to Gemma 4 31B and Mercury 2 at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.