# Mercury vs Step 2 16k Exp 202412

> Step 2 16k Exp 202412 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.6 to 37.3 on the Noometry Index.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/mercury-vs-step-2-16k-exp-202412
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 8

## Summary

- They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. Mercury scores higher in 1 category and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 in 5 categories; 5 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in reasoning, where Step 2 16k Exp 202412 leads 24.8 to 16.8.

## Snapshot

| | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Inception | StepFun |
| Noometry Index | 37.3 | 38.6 |
| Rank | 192 | 173 |
| Context | — | — |
| Input $/M | — | — |
| Output $/M | — | — |
| Weights | Proprietary | Proprietary |

## Coding

- Mercury: 38.1 (#164)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 37.9 (#170)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1323 | 1316 |

## Reasoning

- Mercury: 16.8 (#288)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 24.8 (#140)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1284 | 1299 |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 21.6% | — |

## Math

- Mercury: —
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 33.6 (#171)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Math | — | 1305 |

## Knowledge

- Mercury: —
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 34.6 (#187)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Expert | — | 1279 |

## Multilingual

- Mercury: 41.7 (#201)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 43.9 (#176)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1259 | 1290 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1331 |
| LMArena Russian | — | 1324 |

## Instruction Following

- Mercury: 65.3 (#220)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 68.1 (#187)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1238 | 1287 |

## Long Context

- Mercury: 38.3 (#193)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 39.7 (#165)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1264 | 1307 |

## Writing & Preference

- Mercury: 46.2 (#216)
- Step 2 16k Exp 202412: 52.5 (#168)

| Benchmark | Mercury | Step 2 16k Exp 202412 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1282 | 1321 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1186 | 1328 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1283 | 1292 |

## FAQ

### Is Mercury better than Step 2 16k Exp 202412?

Step 2 16k Exp 202412 is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.6 to 37.3 on the Noometry Index.

### Is Mercury or Step 2 16k Exp 202412 better for coding?

They score almost the same on coding (38.1 vs 37.9); test both on your own repository before choosing.

### How many benchmarks do Mercury and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 share?

8 benchmarks have published results for both models. Mercury has 9 scored results on Noometry and Step 2 16k Exp 202412 has 12.