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DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 vs Inception: Mercury 3

A side-by-side comparison of DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 ($0.52 / 1M tokens) and Inception: Mercury 3 ($0.35 / 1M tokens) using current USD prices and capabilities from the api14 catalog. Both run through the same OpenAI-compatible API.

Specifications

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017Inception: Mercury 3
ProviderDeepSeekInception
Input$0.52 / 1M tokens$0.35 / 1M tokens
Output$2.10 / 1M tokens$1.22 / 1M tokens
Cache read$0.01 / 1M tokens$0.04 / 1M tokens
Context window1,048,5761,000,000
Max output393,216131,072
Inputtext, imagetext
Outputtexttext
Tool calling
Structured output
Reasoning control
AddedOct 17, 2026Oct 16, 2026

Key differences

  • Inception: Mercury 3 is 33% cheaper on input tokens.
  • Inception: Mercury 3 is 42% cheaper on output tokens.
  • A request with 1,000 input and 500 output tokens costs $0.00158 with DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 and $0.000963 with Inception: Mercury 3.

Switch with one string

Both models use the same endpoint and request shape. Change the model value from "deepseek/deepseek-v4.1-flash-1017" to "inception/mercury-3" and prompts, streaming and tools keep working.

DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 details & playground →Inception: Mercury 3 details & playground →
import OpenAI from "openai";

const client = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: "https://api14.com/api/v1",
  apiKey: process.env.API14_API_KEY,
});

const result = await client.chat.completions.create({
  "model": "inception/mercury-3",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Explain vector databases in two sentences."
    }
  ]
});
console.log(result.choices[0].message.content);

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