AI model comparison
gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
Pricing, context window, benchmarks, and features compared side by side. Or skip the guesswork and send one prompt to both.
OpenAI
gpt-oss-20b
gpt-oss-20b is an open-weight 21B parameter model released by OpenAI under the Apache 2.0 license.
- Input / 1M
- $0.02
- Output / 1M
- $0.09
- Context
- 131K
Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct is a 30.5B parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model with 128 experts (8 active per forward pass), designed for advanced code generation, repository-scale understanding, and agentic tool use.
- Input / 1M
- $0.07
- Output / 1M
- $0.28
- Context
- 262K
At a glance
Quick verdict
How the two models stack up on the things people ask about most.
Lower price
gpt-oss-20b
3.5x cheaper for a typical chat
Higher intelligence score
gpt-oss-20b
10 vs 9.6 on Artificial Analysis
Larger context window
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct
262K vs 131K tokens
Newer release
gpt-oss-20b
Released August 5, 2025
Benchmarks
Benchmark scores
Independent scores from Artificial Analysis. Higher is better.
Intelligence index
gpt-oss-20b10Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct9.6Coding index
gpt-oss-20bNot availableQwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructNot availableAgentic index
gpt-oss-20bNot availableQwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructNot availablePricing
gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct API pricing
Per-token API rates. Cheaper option highlighted.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Input tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.02 | $0.07 |
| Output tokensPer 1M tokens | $0.09 | $0.28 |
| Cached input (read)Per 1M tokens | $0.01 | Not available |
| Cache writePer 1M tokens | Not available | Not available |
What it costs in practice
Estimated cost per 1,000 requests at standard rates. Coding and long-document figures also show the cost when the input is already cached.
Chat message
2K in, 500 out
gpt-oss-20b$0.08Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct$0.28Coding task
30K in, 4K out
gpt-oss-20b$0.90$0.63 cachedQwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct$3.22Long document summary
150K in, 2K out
gpt-oss-20b$2.88$1.53 cachedQwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct$11.06Specs
Context window and capabilities
How much each model can read, how much it can write, and what it accepts as input.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Context window | 131K tokens | 262K tokens |
| Max output | 33K tokens | 236K tokens |
| Input types | Text | Text |
| Output types | Text | Text |
| Reasoning effort levels | High, Medium, Low | Not available |
| Default reasoning effort | Medium | Not available |
| Release date | August 5, 2025 | July 31, 2025 |
Features
Supported features
API features available for each model.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct |
|---|---|---|
| Tool calling | Supported | Supported |
| Structured outputs | Supported | Supported |
| JSON mode | Supported | Supported |
| Reasoning | Supported | Not supported |
| Temperature | Supported | Supported |
| Stop sequences | Supported | Not supported |
| Deterministic seed | Supported | Not supported |
| Verbosity control | Not supported | Not supported |
Keep exploring
More on these models
Other head-to-heads, the full model page, and the alternatives list for each model.
gpt-oss-20bView full model details- gpt-oss-20b vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- gpt-oss-20b vs gpt-oss-120b
- gpt-oss-20b vs Mistral Nemo
- gpt-oss-20b vs GPT-5 Nano
- gpt-oss-20b vs Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
- gpt-oss-20b vs Mercury 2.5
- gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3.5-9B
- gpt-oss-20b vs GPT-4.1 Nano
- gpt-oss-20b vs Mistral Small 3
- gpt-oss-20b vs Granite 4.2 8B
- gpt-oss-20b vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B InstructView full model details- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3.5-9B
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 Coder Next
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Granite 4.2 8B
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 VL 30B A3B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 32B
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen2.5 72B Instruct
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 30B A3B
- Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct vs Qwen3 14B
Our take
gpt-oss-20b is 3.5x cheaper for a typical chat. gpt-oss-20b scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (10 vs 9.6). Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct has the larger context window (262K vs 131K tokens). The right pick depends on your workload, so the quickest way to settle it is to send the same prompt to both and compare.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct cheaper?
gpt-oss-20b is cheaper for a typical chat (2K input tokens and 500 output tokens). gpt-oss-20b costs $0.02 per 1M input tokens and $0.09 per 1M output tokens, while Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct costs $0.07 per 1M input tokens and $0.28 per 1M output tokens.
Which has a bigger context window, gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct supports up to 262K tokens of context, compared with 131K for gpt-oss-20b.
Is gpt-oss-20b smarter than Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct?
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, gpt-oss-20b scores 10 and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct scores 9.6, putting gpt-oss-20b ahead. Benchmarks don't capture everything, so the best test is running your own prompts through both.
Can I use gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct at the same time?
Yes. Shortcut Chat sends one prompt to multiple models at once, so you can see gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct answer side by side and keep the better response.
Why choose? Ask both.
Send one prompt to gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct at the same time. Compare the answers side by side and keep the best one.