GPT-5.1-Codex-Max vs Mercury 2

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is clearly ahead on the aggregate, 84 to 65. The gap is large enough that you do not need to squint at the spreadsheet to see the difference.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max's sharpest advantage is in coding, where it averages 75.5 against 41.1. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is SWE-bench Pro, 84 to 43.

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is also the more expensive model on tokens at $2.00 input / $8.00 output per 1M tokens, versus $0.25 input / $0.75 output per 1M tokens for Mercury 2. That is roughly 10.7x on output cost alone. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max gives you the larger context window at 400K, compared with 128K for Mercury 2.

Quick Verdict

Pick GPT-5.1-Codex-Max if you want the stronger benchmark profile. Mercury 2 only becomes the better choice if you want the cheaper token bill.

Agentic

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

86

Mercury 2

63.7

90
Terminal-Bench 2.0
63
85
BrowseComp
67
82
OSWorld-Verified
62

Coding

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

75.5

Mercury 2

41.1

94
HumanEval
75
75
SWE-bench Verified
46
67
LiveCodeBench
38
84
SWE-bench Pro
43

Multimodal & Grounded

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

88.2

Mercury 2

68.3

85
MMMU-Pro
66
92
OfficeQA Pro
71

Reasoning

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

92.1

Mercury 2

80.1

94
SimpleQA
82
92
MuSR
82
92
BBH
87
90
LongBench v2
77
93
MRCRv2
76

Knowledge

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

72.6

Mercury 2

57.2

98
MMLU
78
96
GPQA
78
94
SuperGPQA
76
92
OpenBookQA
74
82
MMLU-Pro
72
27
HLE
9
84
FrontierScience
69

Instruction Following

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

91

Mercury 2

84

91
IFEval
84

Multilingual

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

87.7

Mercury 2

79.7

89
MGSM
81
87
MMLU-ProX
79

Mathematics

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

94.9

Mercury 2

80.9

99
AIME 2023
81
99
AIME 2024
83
98
AIME 2025
82
95
HMMT Feb 2023
77
97
HMMT Feb 2024
79
96
HMMT Feb 2025
78
96
BRUMO 2025
80
93
MATH-500
82

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max is ahead overall, 84 to 65. The biggest single separator in this matchup is SWE-bench Pro, where the scores are 84 and 43.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 72.6 versus 57.2. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 75.5 versus 41.1. Inside this category, SWE-bench Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 94.9 versus 80.9. Inside this category, AIME 2023 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 92.1 versus 80.1. Inside this category, MRCRv2 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 86 versus 63.7. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multimodal and grounded tasks in this comparison, averaging 88.2 versus 68.3. Inside this category, OfficeQA Pro is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for instruction following, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 91 versus 84. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, GPT-5.1-Codex-Max or Mercury 2?

GPT-5.1-Codex-Max has the edge for multilingual tasks in this comparison, averaging 87.7 versus 79.7. Inside this category, MGSM is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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