> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.inceptionlabs.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Reasoning Efforts

> Choose how much Mercury 2 reasons before responding, from near-instant answers to deeper multi-step reasoning.

## Reasoning effort levels

`reasoning_effort` controls how much the model deliberates before answering. It applies to `mercury-2` on the chat completions endpoint and accepts four values:

| Value              | Latency  | Best for                                       |
| ------------------ | -------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| `instant`          | Lowest   | Voice, realtime turns, high-volume automations |
| `low`              | Low      | Latency-sensitive chat and tool-calling        |
| `medium` (default) | Balanced | General-purpose use                            |
| `high`             | Highest  | Complex, multi-step reasoning                  |

If `reasoning_effort` is omitted, the model uses `medium`.