• Updated 1 Nov, 11:50 UTC
  • Next run 2 Nov, 05:17 UTCNext 2 Nov 05:17
  • Last 7 days: 4 new models · 99 runs7 d: 4 models · 99 runs
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Mercury 3 vs Hy4 Preview

6 prompts both ran·Specs and numbers·Change models

Mercury 3 took 7 min 31 s and $0.065 at list price, Hy4 Preview took 34 min 52 s and $0.32 at list price. Hy4 Preview took 4.6× as long and cost 5.0× as much.

Mercury 3

Inception · $0.35/M out · 258 HN pts

Hy4 Preview

Tencent · $2.50/M out · 440 HN pts

Pelican

Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle

Mercury 3's SVG for the "Pelican riding a bicycle" prompt

Mercury 3

1 min 30 s$0.01028k tokensAPI
Hy4 Preview's SVG for the "Pelican riding a bicycle" prompt

Hy4 Preview

4 min 30 s$0.06727k tokensAPI

Watch

Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.

Still of Mercury 3's page for the "Wristwatch that shows the current time" prompt

Mercury 3

70 s$0.01233k tokensAPI
Still of Hy4 Preview's page for the "Wristwatch that shows the current time" prompt

Hy4 Preview

44 s$0.0114.2k tokensAPI

Landing

Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.

Still of Mercury 3's page for the "Landing page for a cargo bike workshop" prompt

Mercury 3

42 s$0.00720k tokensAPI
Still of Hy4 Preview's page for the "Landing page for a cargo bike workshop" prompt

Hy4 Preview

7 min 45 s$0.06225k tokensAPI

Breakout

Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.

Still of Mercury 3's page for the "Playable Breakout" prompt

Mercury 3

29 s$0.00719k tokensAPI
Still of Hy4 Preview's page for the "Playable Breakout" prompt

Hy4 Preview

12 min 37 s$0.1145k tokensAPI

Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.

Mercury 3's SVG for the "Bookshop logo" prompt

Mercury 3

3 min 38 s$0.02983k tokensAPI
Hy4 Preview's SVG for the "Bookshop logo" prompt

Hy4 Preview

7 min 58 s$0.06024k tokensAPI

About

Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.

Patchbay is a three-person repair studio in Rotterdam, tucked between a bike shop and a coffee roastery, where vintage synthesizers come to live another life. We are not a factory and we are not a museum; we are technicians who love the smell of warm solder and the patience that old circuits demand. Between us we have restored everything from early Moog modulars to battered Junos, and we treat each instrument as if it were the first one we ever opened. There is no assembly line here. Every capacitor is tested, every busbar tracked by hand, and every voice board is listened to twice—once on the bench, once through the speakers of the synth that will use it. Patchbay exists because these machines deserve more than a quick fix. They deserve someone who knows their quirks, their failures, and the strange, beautiful sounds that made us fall in love with them in the first place.

Mercury 3

3 s<$0.0011.2k tokensAPI

Patchbay is a three-person studio in Rotterdam with a very specific obsession: bringing vintage synthesizers back to life. We are three technicians and musicians who spend our days surrounded by circuit boards, calibration tapes, and the smell of solder, coaxing sound out of machines that have been silent for years. From wobbly oscillators and dead keys to crackling faders and drifting filters, we diagnose, repair, and restore analog instruments with the patience they deserve. Our workshop is stocked with rare spare parts, original service manuals, and a deep archive of hard-won knowledge about classics from Moog, Roland, Sequential, Korg, and ARP. We love these instruments not as museum pieces, but as living tools that still have music in them. Every synthesizer that leaves our bench is tested, played, and calibrated so it feels reliable enough for the stage, the studio, or the late-night jam that inspired it in the first place.

Hy4 Preview

79 s$0.0125.0k tokensAPI

Specs and numbers

Mercury 3Hy4 Preview
MakerInceptionTencent
Made inUSChina
Released16 Oct 202628 Aug 2026
Price in, per M tokens$0.10$0.834
Price out, per M tokens$0.35$2.50
Context1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Weightsclosedopen
Hacker News points258440
Time for the six prompts7 min 31 s34 min 52 s
List price of the six prompts$0.065$0.32

Mercury 3 was cheaper: $0.26 less at list price, and less on 5 of the 6 prompts. Mercury 3 was faster: 27 min 21 s less in total, and faster on 5 of the 6 prompts.

In the recording, Mercury 3's Breakout game stopped painting; Hy4 Preview's loads but doesn't start.

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