Inception: Mercury 3 vs ScaleDown: Summarize
On input price, ScaleDown: Summarize is ~2.5× cheaper. Verified 2026-10-21.
Inception: Mercury 3 $0.100/$0.350vsScaleDown: Summarize $0.040/Free
Verdict
On blended price (3:1 input:output), ScaleDown: Summarize is ~5.4× cheaper ($0.040/Free vs $0.100/$0.350 per 1M tokens).
Pricing
Per-million-token list prices, verified 2026-10-21. Green marks the better value.
| Metric | Inception: Mercury 3 | ScaleDown: Summarize |
|---|---|---|
| Input / 1M | $0.100 | $0.040 |
| Output / 1M | $0.350 | Free |
| Cache read / 1M | $0.010 | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.163/1M | $0.030/1M |
| Estimated monthly cost | Inception: Mercury 3 | ScaleDown: Summarize |
|---|---|---|
| Chatbot10,000 reqs · 800/400 tok | $2.20 | $0.32 |
| Coding agent5,000 reqs · 8000/2000 tok | $7.50 | $1.60 |
| RAG pipeline30,000 reqs · 4000/500 tok | $17.25 | $4.80 |
Plug in your own numbers in the calculator, or paste a real bill into the Bill Shredder.
Specifications & capabilities
| Metric | Inception: Mercury 3 | ScaleDown: Summarize |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 1M | 1M |
| Max output | 131K | 4K |
| Vision input | – | ✓ |
| Tool calling | ✓ | – |
| Reasoning | ✓ | – |
Full details: Inception: Mercury 3 pricing · ScaleDown: Summarize pricing