Model comparison

gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3.5-Flash

Qwen3.5-Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 23 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-20b OpenAI

32.1

Rank #249 Confirmed

Qwen3.5-Flash Alibaba (Qwen)

42.3

Rank #105 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 23 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 2 categories and Qwen3.5-Flash in 6 categories; 8 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3.5-Flash leads 58.2 to 35.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 60.8% for gpt-oss-20b and 82.3% for Qwen3.5-Flash.
  • gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $0.10 / $0.40 for Qwen3.5-Flash.
  • Qwen3.5-Flash accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.
  • gpt-oss-20b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

Side by side

gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3.5-Flash specifications
gpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index32.142.3
Released2025-08-052026-02-23
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K1M
Max output16K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.018$0.10
Output $ / M tokens$0.09$0.40
Results tracked3432

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Category by category

Coding gpt-oss-20b leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.1 (#185), Qwen3.5-Flash: 33.9 (#234)

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Coding13071412
ALE-Bench566.05221.8
LMArena WebDev—1243
SciCode34.4%—
WeirdML40.9%—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 9.2 (#146), Qwen3.5-Flash: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
Terminal-Bench3.4%—
Vending-Bench 2—462.69

Reasoning Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 18.8 (#251), Qwen3.5-Flash: 32.9 (#63)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
Chess Puzzles4%21%
LMArena Hard Prompts12741404
DTBench68%82.9%
LMCA14.5%29.1%
Epoch Capabilities Index137.81143.98
Kagi LLM Benchmark53.2%—
CritPt1.4%—
Mystery Game Puzzles—20%

Math gpt-oss-20b leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#93), Qwen3.5-Flash: 36.3 (#117)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202565.3%84.4%
LMArena Math13171407
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—18.2%
Omni-MATH56.5%—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—6.2%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—0%

Knowledge Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#186), Qwen3.5-Flash: 43.2 (#84)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
GPQA Diamond60.8%82.3%
LMArena Expert12581408
SimpleQA Verified—20.3%
MMLU-Pro74%—
Vectara Hallucination Rate—10.5%
GPQA (HELM)59.4%—

Multilingual Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 42.4 (#192), Qwen3.5-Flash: 50.7 (#116)

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Non-English12691385
LMArena Chinese13111446
LMArena German12491389
LMArena Japanese12451369
LMArena Korean12391344
LMArena Russian12791379
LMArena Spanish12671399
LMArena French—1412

Instruction Following Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 62.0 (#235), Qwen3.5-Flash: 72.8 (#133)

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Instruction Following12361374
IFEval73.2%—

Long Context Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#203), Qwen3.5-Flash: 42.4 (#119)

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Longer Query12511392

Writing & Preference Qwen3.5-Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 35.8 (#260), Qwen3.5-Flash: 58.2 (#117)

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.5-Flash
LMArena Text12881397
LMArena Creative Writing12011343
LMArena Multi-Turn12681393
EQ-Bench Creative Writing666—
WildBench73.7%—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-20b better than Qwen3.5-Flash?

Qwen3.5-Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 42.3 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 4.9× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.5-Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3.5-Flash?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Qwen3.5-Flash lists at $0.10 and $0.40.

Is gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3.5-Flash better for coding?

gpt-oss-20b scores higher on coding benchmarks: 37.1 versus 33.9 in the Noometry coding category.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.5-Flash does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3.5-Flash share?

23 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.5-Flash has 32.

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