Model comparison
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct vs Mercury 2
Mercury 2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.1 to 35.9 on the Noometry Index.
Last verified . 11 shared benchmarks.
NVIDIASummary
- They share 11 benchmarks with published results for both. Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct scores higher in 1 category and Mercury 2 in 6 categories; 6 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in multilingual, where Mercury 2 leads 46.6 to 36.1.
- Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.
Side by side
| Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | NVIDIA | Inception |
| Noometry Index | 35.9 | 39.1 |
| Released | — | 2026-02-20 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |
| Context window | — | 128K |
| Max output | — | 50K |
| Input $ / M tokens | — | $0.25 |
| Output $ / M tokens | — | $0.75 |
| Results tracked | 12 | 17 |
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Category by category
Coding Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 35.6 (#222), Mercury 2: 33.5 (#255)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1223 | 1391 |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1171 |
| SciCode | — | 38.7% |
| WeirdML | — | 43.2% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 785.58 |
Reasoning Too close to call
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 23.5 (#177), Mercury 2: 23.8 (#170)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1203 | 1362 |
| CritPt | — | 0.8% |
Math Not comparable
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 34.6 (#193), Mercury 2: —
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | 1230 | — |
Knowledge Mercury 2 leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 31.9 (#218), Mercury 2: 36.2 (#172)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | 1167 | 1358 |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | — | 12.3% |
Multilingual Mercury 2 leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 36.1 (#241), Mercury 2: 46.6 (#157)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1181 | 1331 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1180 | 1417 |
| LMArena Russian | 1187 | 1304 |
Instruction Following Mercury 2 leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 62.9 (#233), Mercury 2: 70.2 (#165)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1201 | 1329 |
Long Context Mercury 2 leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 36.5 (#230), Mercury 2: 40.5 (#154)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1205 | 1330 |
Writing & Preference Mercury 2 leads
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct: 43.4 (#229), Mercury 2: 53.8 (#155)
| Benchmark | Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct | Mercury 2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1228 | 1355 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1213 | 1289 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1227 | 1358 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct better than Mercury 2?
Mercury 2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 39.1 to 35.9 on the Noometry Index.
Is Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct or Mercury 2 better for coding?
Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct scores higher on coding benchmarks: 35.6 versus 33.5 in the Noometry coding category.
How many benchmarks do Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct and Mercury 2 share?
11 benchmarks have published results for both models. Llama 3.1 Nemotron 51b Instruct has 12 scored results on Noometry and Mercury 2 has 17.