Model comparison

gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3.6 Flash

Qwen3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Last verified . 7 shared benchmarks.

gpt-oss-20b OpenAI

32.1

Rank #249 Confirmed

Qwen3.6 Flash Alibaba (Qwen)

38.4

Rank #176 Confirmed

Summary

  • They share 7 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 0 categories and Qwen3.6 Flash in 3 categories; 2 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
  • The widest gap is in reasoning, where Qwen3.6 Flash leads 28.4 to 18.8.
  • The biggest single-benchmark swing is GPQA Diamond: 60.8% for gpt-oss-20b and 83.3% for Qwen3.6 Flash.
  • gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $0.19 / $1.13 for Qwen3.6 Flash.
  • Qwen3.6 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 Qwen3.6 Flash specifications
gpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
ProviderOpenAIAlibaba (Qwen)
Noometry Index32.138.4
Released2025-08-052026-04-27
WeightsOpenProprietary
Context window131K1M
Max output16K66K
Input $ / M tokens$0.018$0.19
Output $ / M tokens$0.09$1.13
Results tracked3413

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

Category by category

Coding Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 37.1 (#185), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Coding benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
ALE-Bench566.05326.4
SciCode34.4%—
WeirdML40.9%—
LMArena Coding1307—

Agentic & Tool Use Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 9.2 (#146), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Agentic & Tool Use benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
Terminal-Bench3.4%—

Reasoning Qwen3.6 Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 18.8 (#251), Qwen3.6 Flash: 28.4 (#90)

Reasoning benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
Chess Puzzles4%20%
DTBench68%77.1%
LMCA14.5%31%
Epoch Capabilities Index137.81143.26
SimpleBench—35.2%
Kagi LLM Benchmark53.2%—
CritPt1.4%—
LMArena Hard Prompts1274—
Mystery Game Puzzles—18%

Math Too close to call

gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#93), Qwen3.6 Flash: 38.0 (#88)

Math benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
OTIS Mock AIME 2024-202565.3%84.4%
FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3)—22.5%
Omni-MATH56.5%—
LMArena Math1317—
FrontierMath (Feb 2025 set)—10.3%
FrontierMath Tier 4 (v1)—0%

Knowledge Qwen3.6 Flash leads

gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#186), Qwen3.6 Flash: 42.2 (#90)

Knowledge benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
GPQA Diamond60.8%83.3%
SimpleQA Verified—15.9%
MMLU-Pro74%—
GPQA (HELM)59.4%—
LMArena Expert1258—

Multilingual Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 42.4 (#192), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Multilingual benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
LMArena Non-English1269—
LMArena Chinese1311—
LMArena German1249—
LMArena Japanese1245—
LMArena Korean1239—
LMArena Russian1279—
LMArena Spanish1267—

Instruction Following Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 62.0 (#235), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Instruction Following benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
IFEval73.2%—
LMArena Instruction Following1236—

Long Context Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#203), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Long Context benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
LMArena Longer Query1251—

Writing & Preference Not comparable

gpt-oss-20b: 35.8 (#260), Qwen3.6 Flash: —

Writing & Preference benchmarks
Benchmarkgpt-oss-20bQwen3.6 Flash
LMArena Text1288—
LMArena Creative Writing1201—
EQ-Bench Creative Writing666—
WildBench73.7%—
LMArena Multi-Turn1268—

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-20b better than Qwen3.6 Flash?

Qwen3.6 Flash is the stronger model overall, scoring 38.4 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 12× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3.6 Flash's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3.6 Flash?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Qwen3.6 Flash lists at $0.19 and $1.13.

Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3.6 Flash does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3.6 Flash share?

7 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3.6 Flash has 13.

Related comparisons

Go deeper