GPT OSS 20B vs Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
GPT OSS 20B comes out ahead, 64 to 58 on our weighted score, and it is the cheaper option too.
- Our pick
OpenAIGPT OSS 20B
64/100- ECI137.8
- Price$0.07 / $0.295
- Context131K
Alibaba (Qwen)Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507
58/100- ECI138.9
- Price$0.15 / $0.75
- Context262K
Add a model
Make it a three-way comparison.
GPT OSS 20B is our pick
GPT OSS 20B is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
- CapabilityQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9 · GPT OSS 20B 137.8
- Lowest priceGPT OSS 20BGPT OSS 20B $0.126 · Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 $0.30 per 1M tokens (3:1 blend)
- Longest contextQwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 262,144 · GPT OSS 20B 131,072 tokens
- Widest inputsSame inputsGPT OSS 20B: Text · 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 20B | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CapabilityCapabilities Index (ECI) | 50% | 63 | 64 |
| Price | 25% | 92 | 75 |
| Inputs & features | 15% | 45 | 25 |
| Context window | 10% | 24 | 37 |
| Overall | 100% | 64/100 | 58/100 |
Every spec in one table
Highlighted cells lead their row. Dashes mean the data is not published.
| Specification | GPT OSS 20BOpenAI | Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507Alibaba (Qwen) |
|---|---|---|
| Capability | ||
| Capabilities Index (ECI) | 137.8 | 138.9 (best) |
| ECI rank | #108 of 148 | #105 of 148 (best) |
| GPQA DiamondGraduate-level science questions | 60.8% | — |
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024–2025Competition mathematics | 65.3% | — |
| Price per million tokens | ||
| Input | $0.07 (best) | $0.15 |
| Output | $0.295 (best) | $0.75 |
| Cached input | — | — |
| Blended (3:1) | $0.126 (best) | $0.30 |
| Long-context rate | Same rate | Same rate |
| Price source | Median of 18 providers | Median of 11 providers |
| Limits | ||
| Context window | 131,072 tokens | 262,144 tokens (best) |
| Max output | 32,768 tokens (best) | 16,384 tokens |
| Inputs and features | ||
| Text | Yes | Yes |
| Images | No | No |
| PDFs | No | No |
| Audio | No | No |
| Video | No | No |
| Reasoning | Yes | No |
| Tool calling | Yes | Yes |
| Structured output | Yes | No |
| Availability | ||
| Weights | Open | OpenApache 2.0 |
| API model ID | — | — |
| API providers | 19 (best) | 11 |
| Released | Aug 5, 2025 | 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 20B$1.29
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507$3.00
Which should you choose?
Which is better: GPT OSS 20B or Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507?
GPT OSS 20B is the better all-round choice, scoring 64/100 against Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (58). It leads on price and inputs & features. Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 wins on context window. The score weighs capability 50%, price 25%, inputs & features 15%, context window 10%.
Which is cheaper, GPT OSS 20B or Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507?
GPT OSS 20B is cheaper at $0.07 input / $0.295 output per million tokens (median across 18 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 $0.126 per million tokens for GPT OSS 20B versus $0.30 for Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 (2.4× as much).
Which scores higher on benchmarks?
Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 scores higher on the Capabilities Index (ECI): Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 138.9 (#105 of 148) and GPT OSS 20B 137.8 (#108 of 148). The confidence ranges of the top two overlap (135.8–140.6 vs 133.0–139.6), so treat the gap as small.
Which is better for coding?
There are no published SWE-bench Verified results for GPT OSS 20B and Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 yet, so there is no like-for-like coding score. On overall capability, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 leads, which tends to carry over to coding, but test on your own codebase. Both support tool calling for agent workflows.
Which has the bigger context window?
Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 has the largest context window at 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for GPT OSS 20B. Maximum output per response: GPT OSS 20B up to 32,768, Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 up to 16,384 tokens.
Which can read images, PDFs, audio or video?
GPT OSS 20B accepts text; Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 accepts text. They handle the same number of input types.
Are any of these open source?
Yes, both publish their weights (Apache 2.0), so you can self-host them.
Which is newer?
GPT OSS 20B is the newest, released 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.
Related comparisons
- Add Qwen3.5 9BThree-way comparison
- GPT OSS 20B vs Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba (Qwen) · ECI 139.5
- GPT OSS 20B vs Gemini 2.5 Flash-LiteGoogle · ECI 133.9
- GPT OSS 20B vs Mistral Small 3.2Mistral AI · ECI 131.7
- GPT OSS 20B vs DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-32BDeepSeek · ECI 137.4
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs GPT OSS 120BOpenAI · ECI 140.0
- Qwen3 235B-A22B Instruct 2507 vs DeepSeek-V3.1DeepSeek · ECI 139.9
