• Updated 1 Nov, 11:50 UTC
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Mercury 3 vs Step 5 Preview

6 prompts both ran·Specs and numbers·Change models

Mercury 3 took 7 min 31 s and $0.065 at list price, Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price. Step 5 Preview took 1.4× as long and cost 5.1× as much.

Mercury 3

Inception · $0.35/M out · 258 HN pts

Step 5 Preview

StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 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
Step 5 Preview's SVG for the "Pelican riding a bicycle" prompt

Step 5 Preview

32 s$0.0196.9k 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 Step 5 Preview's page for the "Wristwatch that shows the current time" prompt

Step 5 Preview

22 s$0.0134.9k 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 Step 5 Preview's page for the "Landing page for a cargo bike workshop" prompt

Step 5 Preview

4 min 7 s$0.1453k 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 Step 5 Preview's page for the "Playable Breakout" prompt

Step 5 Preview

1 min 55 s$0.06825k 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
Step 5 Preview's SVG for the "Bookshop logo" prompt

Step 5 Preview

3 min 41 s$0.08431k 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 workshop based in Rotterdam, dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive and playable. We are technicians, musicians, and obsessive tinkerers who believe that classic analog instruments deserve better than silence. From temperamental Jupiter-8s to worn-out ARP Odysseys, we restore, repair, and maintain the machines that shaped the sound of modern music. Every repair starts with listening—both to the instrument and to the person who plays it. Whether you are chasing a rare fault, need a full calibration, or simply want your old synth to feel new again, our bench is open. We understand that no two synthesizers arrive with the same story, and we treat each circuit, slider, and key with the care its history deserves. At Patchbay, we are here to make sure the sounds of tomorrow are built on those that came before.

Step 5 Preview

7 s$0.003919 tokensAPI

Specs and numbers

Mercury 3Step 5 Preview
MakerInceptionStepFun
Made inUSChina
Released16 Oct 20268 Oct 2026
Price in, per M tokens$0.10$1.00
Price out, per M tokens$0.35$2.70
Context1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Weightsclosedopen
Hacker News points258155
Time for the six prompts7 min 31 s10 min 44 s
List price of the six prompts$0.065$0.33

Mercury 3 was cheaper: $0.26 less at list price, and less on each of the 6 prompts. Mercury 3 was faster: 3 min 13 s less in total, and faster on 4 of the 6 prompts.

In the recording, Mercury 3's Breakout game stopped painting; Step 5 Preview's plays.

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