Model comparison

gpt-oss-20b vs Inkling

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 32.5 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 71× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 27 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-20b OpenAI

32.5

Rank #255 Confirmed

Inkling Thinking Machines Lab

44.1

Rank #80 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 27 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 2 categories and Inkling in 7 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Inkling leads 65.2 to 35.5.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 60.8% for gpt-oss-20b and 88.3% for Inkling.
  • gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $1.87 / $4.68 for Inkling.
  • gpt-oss-20b accepts more context: 131K tokens versus 66K.

Side by side

gpt-oss-20b and Inkling specifications
gpt-oss-20bInkling
ProviderOpenAIThinking Machines Lab
Noometry Index32.544.1
Released2025-08-052026-07-15
WeightsOpenOpen
Context window131K66K
Max output16K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.018$1.87
Output $ / M tokens$0.09$4.68
Results tracked3441

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Category by category

Coding gpt-oss-20b leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#192), Inkling: 34.5 (#234)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
SciCode34.4%47%
WeirdML40.9%32.3%
LMArena Coding13061464
ALE-Bench566.05946
FrontierCode—14%
LMArena WebDev—1413
FrontierSWE—4.1%

Agentic & Tool Use Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 9.3 (#154), Inkling: 29.6 (#85)

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
Terminal-Bench3.4%—
APEX-Agents—33.8%
τ²-bench Banking—25%

Reasoning Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 19.3 (#261), Inkling: 40.4 (#56)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
CritPt1.4%5.4%
Chess Puzzles4%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts12741451
DTBench68%87.5%
LMCA14.5%37.6%
Epoch Capabilities Index137.82148.54
ARC-AGI-2—36.5%
SimpleBench—50%
Kagi LLM Benchmark53.2%—
ARC-AGI-1—79.5%

Math gpt-oss-20b leads

gpt-oss-20b: 39.4 (#103), Inkling: 31.3 (#225)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202565.3%88.9%
LMArena Math13171479
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—33.3%
FrontierMath Tier 4—4.9%
ProofBench—0%
Omni-MATH56.5%—

Knowledge Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#195), Inkling: 55.1 (#49)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
GPQA Diamond60.8%88.3%
LMArena Expert12581465
SimpleQA Verified—40.3%
MMLU-Pro74%—
GPQA (HELM)59.4%—

Multilingual Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 42.2 (#197), Inkling: 54.0 (#52)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
LMArena Non-English12681434
LMArena Chinese13141490
LMArena German12551446
LMArena Japanese12441429
LMArena Korean12361404
LMArena Russian12781429
LMArena Spanish12671448
LMArena French—1458

Instruction Following Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 61.8 (#240), Inkling: 75.1 (#71)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
LMArena Instruction Following12361426
IFEval73.2%—

Long Context Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#209), Inkling: 43.8 (#86)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
LMArena Longer Query12501434

Writing & Preference Inkling leads

gpt-oss-20b: 35.5 (#265), Inkling: 65.2 (#51)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bInkling
LMArena Text12871441
LMArena Creative Writing12011387
EQ-Bench Creative Writing6661611
LMArena Multi-Turn12681436
WildBench73.7%—
EQ-Bench 4—1226

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-20b better than Inkling?

Inkling is the stronger model overall, scoring 44.1 to 32.5 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 71× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Inkling's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Inkling?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Inkling lists at $1.87 and $4.68.

Is gpt-oss-20b or Inkling better for coding?

gpt-oss-20b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.6 versus 34.5 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

gpt-oss-20b does, with 131K tokens against 66K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Inkling share?

27 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Inkling has 41.

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