GPT OSS 120B vs Qwen3.5 9B vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
Qwen3.5 9B comes out ahead, 72 to 61 and 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
OpenAIGPT OSS 120B
61/100- ECI140.0
- Price$0.15 / $0.60
- Context131K
- Our pick
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3.5 9B
72/100- ECI139.5
- Price$0.10 / $0.15
- Context262K
- Alibaba (Qwen)
Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
58/100- ECI138.9
- Price$0.15 / $0.75
- Context262K
Qwen3.5 9B is our pick
Qwen3.5 9B is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against GPT OSS 120B (61) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityGPT OSS 120BCapabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 120B 140.0 · Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9
- Lowest priceQwen3.5 9BQwen3.5 9B $0.113 · GPT OSS 120B $0.263 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 $0.30 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3.5 9B and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Qwen3.5 9B 262,144 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 262,144 · GPT OSS 120B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsQwen3.5 9BGPT OSS 120B: Text · Qwen3.5 9B: Text, Images, Video · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507: Text
- Self-hostingAll open weightsEvery model here can be downloaded and run on your own hardware
| Measure | Weight | GPT OSS 120B | Qwen3.5 9B | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 65 | 65 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 77 | 95 | 75 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 45 | 80 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 37 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 61/100 | 72/100 | 58/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT OSS 120BOpenAI | Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen) | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | |||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 140.0 (best) | 139.5 | 138.9 |
| ECI rank | #99 of 148 (best) | #101 of 148 | #105 of 148 |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 75.8% | 79.0% (best) | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 88.9% (best) | 61.7% | — |
| Price per million tokens | |||
| Input | $0.15 | $0.10 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.60 | $0.15 (best) | $0.75 |
| Cached input | — | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.263 | $0.113 (best) | $0.30 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 36 providers | Median of 14 providers | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | |||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens | 65,536 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | |||
| Text | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | Yes | No |
| PDFs | No | No | No |
| Audio | No | No | No |
| Video | No | Yes | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | Yes | No |
| Availability | |||
| Weights | Open | Open | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — | — |
| API providers | 39 (best) | 15 | 11 |
| Released | Aug 5, 2025 | Feb 23, 2026 | Jul 21, 2025 |
| Knowledge cutoff | — | — | — |
What would a month cost?
Enter your expected volume in millions of tokens. List prices only; caching and batch discounts would lower these.
- GPT OSS 120B$2.70
- Qwen3.5 9B$1.30
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507$3.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT OSS 120B, Qwen3.5 9B or Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507?
Qwen3.5 9B is the better all-round choice, scoring 72/100 against GPT OSS 120B (61) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT OSS 120B, Qwen3.5 9B or Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507?
Qwen3.5 9B is cheaper at $0.10 input / $0.15 output per million tokens (median across 14 API providers). GPT OSS 120B costs $0.15 input / $0.60 output per million tokens (median across 36 API providers); Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 costs $0.15 input / $0.75 output per million tokens (median across 11 API providers). At a typical mix of three input tokens to one output token, that is $0.113 per million tokens for Qwen3.5 9B versus $0.263 for GPT OSS 120B (2.3× as much) and $0.30 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (2.7× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
GPT OSS 120B scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): GPT OSS 120B 140.0 (#99 of 148), Qwen3.5 9B 139.5 (#101 of 148) and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9 (#105 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.3–142.3 vs 136.5–141.3), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT OSS 120B, Qwen3.5 9B and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, GPT OSS 120B leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. All three support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3.5 9B and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 have the largest context windows (262,144 and 262,144 tokens), against 131,072 for GPT OSS 120B. Maximum output per response: GPT OSS 120B up to 32,768, Qwen3.5 9B up to 65,536, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT OSS 120B accepts text; Qwen3.5 9B accepts text, images and video; Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 accepts text. Qwen3.5 9B handles the widest range of inputs.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, all three publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
Qwen3.5 9B is the newest, released Feb 23, 2026. GPT OSS 120B came out Aug 5, 2025; Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 came out Jul 21, 2025.
How do you decide the winner?
Each model gets a 0–100 score on capability (50%, independent benchmark results); price (25%, blended price per million tokens (3 input : 1 output), log scale); inputs & features (15%, image, PDF, audio and video input, tool calling, structured output and reasoning); context window (10%, maximum tokens per request, log scale). Dimensions missing for any model are dropped and the remaining weights rescaled, so every model is judged on the same evidence. Specs and prices come from public model listings and the labs’ own API pages; capability scores come from independent benchmark runs. Data updated Oct 4, 2026.
