Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Magistral Small

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.0 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

Last verified . 8 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.0

Rank #210 Confirmed

Magistral Small Mistral AI

29.9

Rank #289 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 8 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 3 categories and Magistral Small in 1 category; 4 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 50.6 to 24.9.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 88.9% for gpt-oss-120b and 30% for Magistral Small.
  • gpt-oss-120b is cheaper at $0.037 / $0.17 per million input/output tokens, against $0.50 / $1.50 for Magistral Small.
  • gpt-oss-120b accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 128K.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Magistral Small specifications
gpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
ProviderOpenAIMistral AI
Noometry Index36.029.9
Released2025-08-052025-06-10
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K128K
Max output41K40K
Input $ / M tokens$0.037$0.50
Output $ / M tokens$0.17$1.50
Results tracked4810

Sponsored placements are available on pages like this one. Advertise on Noometry

Category by category

Coding Magistral Small leads

gpt-oss-120b: 33.2 (#251), Magistral Small: 37.8 (#172)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
SciCode36%35.2%
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
WeirdML48.2%—
LMArena Coding1380—
ALE-Bench575.62—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.1 (#145), Magistral Small: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—
Vending-Bench 2-21.53—

Reasoning gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 19.5 (#236), Magistral Small: 6.9 (#345)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%6.3%
CritPt1.1%0.3%
Chess Puzzles20%3%
DTBench76.3%61.3%
Epoch Capabilities Index139.94133.19
ARC-AGI-2—0%
SimpleBench22.1%—
ARC-AGI-1—5%
LMArena Hard Prompts1364—
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
LMCA22.1%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—

Math gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 50.6 (#43), Magistral Small: 24.9 (#253)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%30%
Omni-MATH68.8%—
LMArena Math1388—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.3 (#89), Magistral Small: 30.9 (#215)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
GPQA Diamond75.8%56.1%
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—
LMArena Expert1356—

Multilingual Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 48.2 (#142), Magistral Small: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
LMArena Non-English1350—
LMArena Chinese1384—
LMArena French1370—
LMArena German1355—
LMArena Japanese1332—
LMArena Korean1283—
LMArena Russian1343—
LMArena Spanish1388—

Instruction Following Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 69.5 (#168), Magistral Small: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
IFEval83.6%—
LMArena Instruction Following1318—

Long Context Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#273), Magistral Small: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—
LMArena Longer Query1319—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 46.7 (#213), Magistral Small: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bMagistral Small
LMArena Text1366—
LMArena Creative Writing1274—
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—
LMArena Multi-Turn1340—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Magistral Small?

gpt-oss-120b is the stronger model overall, scoring 36.0 to 29.9 on the Noometry Index.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-120b or Magistral Small?

gpt-oss-120b is cheaper. It lists at $0.037 per million input tokens and $0.17 per million output tokens; Magistral Small lists at $0.50 and $1.50.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Magistral Small better for coding?

Magistral Small scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.8 versus 33.2 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

gpt-oss-120b does, with 131K tokens against 128K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Magistral Small share?

8 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Magistral Small has 10.

Related comparisons

Go deeper