Compare / Qwen3-Max vs gpt-oss-20b
Qwen3-Max vs gpt-oss-20b
Which is cheaper, which is more capable, and which does better at each kind of work, from 16 results on 3 sources that measured both models.
Of the 16 results both models have, the better value on each. Results whose reported ranges overlap are too close to call.
Results as of 9 October 2026 (catalogue release 2026-10-09-dd620e778ac5). See also Alibaba vs OpenAI, every model from both labs.
Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b? The short answer
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 10.0). Pick gpt-oss-20b if cost matters more: it costs 26 times less per token.
- gpt-oss-20b is cheaper: $0.060 against $1.56 per million tokens, 26 times less.
- Qwen3-Max scores higher on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 15.6 against 10.0.
- Qwen3-Max is newer: released 24 Sep 2025, against 5 Aug 2025 for gpt-oss-20b.
- On third-party benchmarks, on the results both models have: Qwen3-Max does better for reasoning and knowledge and writing.
Head to head
Every fact side by side
| Qwen3-Max | gpt-oss-20b | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per million tokens | $0.78 in · $3.90 out | $0.030 in · $0.15 out |
| Blended (3 in : 1 out) | $1.56 | $0.060 |
| Cheapest host, blended | – | $0.036 (Darkbloom, FP8) |
| Intelligence Index | 15.6 | 10.0 |
| Spring Prompt overall | – | – |
| Output speed, tokens a second | – | 255 |
| Context window | 262,144 tokens | 131,072 tokens |
| Released | 24 Sep 2025 (newer) | 5 Aug 2025 |
| Weights | Closed | Open |
| Developer based in | China | the US |
Prices are the developer's list price where we have read it, otherwise the typical host on OpenRouter; see every model's price. Intelligence and speed from Artificial Analysis.
Which is better for what
Each model's rank among the models on sale today, for each kind of work, from our own benchmarks and licensed sources. Further right is better; the better rank is in green.
Every shared result
Each model's best result on every measure both have, grouped by benchmark, with the setting that produced it. Under each measure, every model that benchmark has measured is a grey tick, best to the right, so you can see where the two sit in the field. The headline measures of each benchmark come first; the rest are under "Show all". Green marks the better value; where a source reports ranges that overlap, neither is marked.
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | gpt-oss-20b |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Overall · TextArena rating, higher is better 108 · 237 of 387 measured | 1,423 | 1,318 |
| Business, management and finance · TextArena rating, higher is better 110 · 213 of 380 measured | 1,419 | 1,323 |
| Creative writing · TextArena rating, higher is better 105 · 275 of 385 measured | 1,393 | 1,240 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 3 results | ||
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Indexindex score, higher is better 123 · 170 of 243 measured | 15.6 | 10.0low reasoning |
| GPQA Diamond% of questions, higher is better 132 · 158 of 231 measured | 76.4% | 68.8%high reasoning |
| Humanity's Last Exam% of questions, higher is better 140 · 145 of 242 measured | 11.9% | 11.0%high reasoning |
| UGI Leaderboard reported by UGI Leaderboard · 3 results | ||
| Writing score · UGIscore out of 100, higher is better 115 · 182 of 230 measured | 38.6 | 24.6low reasoning |
| Requested-length error · UGI% off the requested word count, lower is better 134 · 221 of 230 measured | 23.0% | 98.0%low reasoning |
| Style adherence · UGIscore from 0 to 1, higher is better 155 · 187 of 230 measured | 0.33 | 0.31medium reasoning |
Show all 16 results (7 more)
| Measure | Qwen3-Max | gpt-oss-20b |
|---|---|---|
| Arena (formerly LMArena) reported by Arena (formerly LMArena) · 3 results | ||
| Expert prompts · TextArena rating, higher is better 137 · 220 of 338 measured | 1,417 | 1,314 |
| Instruction following · TextArena rating, higher is better 106 · 257 of 387 measured | 1,413 | 1,281 |
| Writing, literature and language · TextArena rating, higher is better 101 · 261 of 386 measured | 1,405 | 1,275 |
| Artificial Analysis reported by Artificial Analysis · 4 results | ||
| IFBench% of instructions, higher is better 118 · 69 of 195 measured | 44.2% | 65.1%high reasoning |
| Long-context reasoning (AA-LCR)% of questions, higher is better 154 · 176 of 233 measured | 50.0% | 34.7%high reasoning |
| Terminal-Bench Hard% of tasks, higher is better 91 · 127 of 190 measured | 20.5% | 10.6%high reasoning |
| τ²-bench telecom% of tasks, higher is better 79 · 96 of 193 measured | 74.3% | 60.2%high reasoning |
Compare them with other models
Quick answers
Is Qwen3-Max better than gpt-oss-20b?
Pick Qwen3-Max if quality matters most: it scores higher (Intelligence Index 15.6 against 10.0). Pick gpt-oss-20b if cost matters more: it costs 26 times less per token.
Which is cheaper, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b?
gpt-oss-20b is cheaper: $0.060 against $1.56 per million tokens, 26 times less.
Which is better for agents and tool use, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b?
gpt-oss-20b ranks 127 of 164 models on sale for multi-step tasks with tools: support desks, coding agents, function calls, against 154 for Qwen3-Max.
Which is better for reasoning and knowledge, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b?
Qwen3-Max ranks 121 of 198 models on sale for hard questions across science, maths and general knowledge, against 137 for gpt-oss-20b.
Which is better for writing, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b?
Qwen3-Max ranks 99 of 188 models on sale for what people prefer in blind comparisons, and judged writing quality, against 171 for gpt-oss-20b.
Which has the bigger context window, Qwen3-Max or gpt-oss-20b?
Qwen3-Max: 262,144 tokens, against 131,072 for gpt-oss-20b.
Run Qwen3-Max and gpt-oss-20b on your own prompt
Benchmarks aren't your data. Try both side by side in the playground, with the cost of every answer.