Model comparison

gpt-oss-120b vs Qwen3.5 27B

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.9 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-120b costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-120b OpenAI

36.3

Rank #217 Confirmed

Qwen3.5 27B Alibaba (Qwen)

41.9

Rank #127 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-120b scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.5 27B in 6 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in math, where gpt-oss-120b leads 52.5 to 38.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is LMCA: 22.1% for gpt-oss-120b and 34% for Qwen3.5 27B.
  • gpt-oss-120b is cheaper at $0.037 / $0.17 per million input/output tokens, against $0.30 / $2.40 for Qwen3.5 27B.
  • Qwen3.5 27B accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.

Side by side

gpt-oss-120b and Qwen3.5 27B specifications
gpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index36.341.9
Released2025-08-052026-02-23
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K262K
Max output41K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.037$0.30
Output $ / M tokens$0.17$2.40
Results tracked4828

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Category by category

Coding Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 33.5 (#256), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.9 (#168)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
WeirdML48.2%39.5%
LMArena Coding13801427
ALE-Bench575.62349.45
SWE-bench Verified (bash only)26%—
Aider Polyglot41.8%—
LMArena WebDev—1358
SciCode36%—
AlgoTune1.41—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: 12.2 (#153), Qwen3.5 27B: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
Vending-Bench 2-21.53201.98
Terminal-Bench18.7%—
APEX-Agents4.4%—
METR Time Horizons56.6%—

Reasoning Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 20.0 (#245), Qwen3.5 27B: 27.5 (#117)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Hard Prompts13641414
DTBench76.3%82.4%
LMCA22.1%34%
SimpleBench22.1%—
Kagi LLM Benchmark58.6%—
NYT Connections (extended)—47.9%
CritPt1.1%—
Chess Puzzles20%—
Thematic Generalization—45.5%
Mystery Game Puzzles2%—
Surface Evolver Bench25%—
Epoch Capabilities Index139.93—

Math gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 52.5 (#50), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.8 (#127)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Math13891429
MathArena Final-Answer Competitions—56.7%
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202588.9%—
Omni-MATH68.8%—

Knowledge gpt-oss-120b leads

gpt-oss-120b: 42.4 (#96), Qwen3.5 27B: 38.0 (#150)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
Vectara Hallucination Rate14.2%12.1%
LMArena Expert13561428
GPQA Diamond75.8%—
MMLU-Pro79.5%—
Confabulations15.7%—
GPQA (HELM)68.4%—

Multimodal Not comparable

gpt-oss-120b: —, Qwen3.5 27B: 39.4 (#59)

Multimodal benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Vision—1241

Multilingual Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 48.0 (#147), Qwen3.5 27B: 50.8 (#115)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Non-English13511390
LMArena Chinese13851478
LMArena French13691410
LMArena German13531393
LMArena Japanese13311345
LMArena Korean12821358
LMArena Russian13431390
LMArena Spanish13891407

Instruction Following Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 69.3 (#173), Qwen3.5 27B: 73.5 (#119)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Instruction Following13181393
IFEval83.6%—

Long Context Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 31.4 (#278), Qwen3.5 27B: 43.1 (#106)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Longer Query13191413
Fiction.LiveBench44.4%—

Writing & Preference Qwen3.5 27B leads

gpt-oss-120b: 46.5 (#217), Qwen3.5 27B: 59.3 (#111)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-120bQwen3.5 27B
LMArena Text13651409
LMArena Creative Writing12751362
LMArena Multi-Turn13401410
Short-Story Creative Writing77.1%—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing961—
WildBench84.5%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b better than Qwen3.5 27B?

Qwen3.5 27B is the stronger model overall, scoring 41.9 to 36.3 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-120b costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5 27B's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-120b or Qwen3.5 27B?

gpt-oss-120b is cheaper. It lists at $0.037 per million input tokens and $0.17 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5 27B lists at $0.30 and $2.40.

Is gpt-oss-120b or Qwen3.5 27B better for coding?

Qwen3.5 27B scores higher on coding benchmarks: 38.9 versus 33.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5 27B does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-120b and Qwen3.5 27B share?

23 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-120b has 48 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5 27B has 28.

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