# gpt-oss-20b vs Qwen3 Max

> Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 67× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gpt-oss-20b-vs-qwen3-max
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 24

## Summary

- They share 24 benchmarks with published results for both. gpt-oss-20b scores higher in 1 category and Qwen3 Max in 7 categories; 7 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in writing & preference, where Qwen3 Max leads 62.6 to 35.8.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is Kagi LLM Benchmark: 53.2% for gpt-oss-20b and 72.5% for Qwen3 Max.
- gpt-oss-20b is cheaper at $0.018 / $0.09 per million input/output tokens, against $1.20 / $6 for Qwen3 Max.
- Qwen3 Max accepts more context: 262K tokens versus 131K.
- gpt-oss-20b has downloadable open weights; the other is API-only.

## Snapshot

| | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | OpenAI | Alibaba (Qwen) |
| Noometry Index | 32.1 | 43.5 |
| Rank | 249 | 82 |
| Context | 131K | 262K |
| Input $/M | $0.018 | $1.20 |
| Output $/M | $0.09 | $6 |
| Weights | Open | Proprietary |

## Coding

- gpt-oss-20b: 37.1 (#185)
- Qwen3 Max: 42.4 (#93)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Coding | 1307 | 1456 |
| ALE-Bench | 566.05 | 370.45 |
| SciCode | 34.4% | — |
| WeirdML | 40.9% | — |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- gpt-oss-20b: 9.2 (#146)
- Qwen3 Max: —

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal-Bench | 3.4% | — |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 71.56 |

## Reasoning

- gpt-oss-20b: 18.8 (#251)
- Qwen3 Max: 22.0 (#186)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 53.2% | 72.5% |
| Chess Puzzles | 4% | 4% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1274 | 1448 |
| DTBench | 68% | 82.1% |
| LMCA | 14.5% | 28.3% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 137.81 | 142.41 |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 30.1% |
| CritPt | 1.4% | — |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 5% |

## Math

- gpt-oss-20b: 37.6 (#93)
- Qwen3 Max: 37.6 (#94)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 65.3% | 73.3% |
| LMArena Math | 1317 | 1447 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 18.9% |
| Omni-MATH | 56.5% | — |
| MATH Level 5 | — | 97.1% |

## Knowledge

- gpt-oss-20b: 34.6 (#186)
- Qwen3 Max: 48.1 (#72)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 60.8% | 72.6% |
| LMArena Expert | 1258 | 1457 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 48.7% |
| MMLU-Pro | 74% | — |
| GPQA (HELM) | 59.4% | — |

## Multilingual

- gpt-oss-20b: 42.4 (#192)
- Qwen3 Max: 53.9 (#58)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1269 | 1429 |
| LMArena Chinese | 1311 | 1479 |
| LMArena German | 1249 | 1463 |
| LMArena Japanese | 1245 | 1399 |
| LMArena Korean | 1239 | 1397 |
| LMArena Russian | 1279 | 1428 |
| LMArena Spanish | 1267 | 1463 |
| LMArena French | — | 1450 |

## Instruction Following

- gpt-oss-20b: 62.0 (#235)
- Qwen3 Max: 75.0 (#81)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1236 | 1420 |
| IFEval | 73.2% | — |

## Long Context

- gpt-oss-20b: 37.9 (#203)
- Qwen3 Max: 41.6 (#129)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1251 | 1439 |
| Fiction.LiveBench | — | 66.7% |
| CL-bench | — | 14.5% |

## Writing & Preference

- gpt-oss-20b: 35.8 (#260)
- Qwen3 Max: 62.6 (#72)

| Benchmark | gpt-oss-20b | Qwen3 Max |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1288 | 1439 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1201 | 1401 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1268 | 1446 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 666 | — |
| WildBench | 73.7% | — |

## FAQ

### Is gpt-oss-20b better than Qwen3 Max?

Qwen3 Max is the stronger model overall, scoring 43.5 to 32.1 on the Noometry Index. gpt-oss-20b costs 67× less per token, which makes it the better buy when Qwen3 Max's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3 Max?

gpt-oss-20b is cheaper. It lists at $0.018 per million input tokens and $0.09 per million output tokens; Qwen3 Max lists at $1.20 and $6.

### Is gpt-oss-20b or Qwen3 Max better for coding?

Qwen3 Max scores higher on coding benchmarks: 42.4 versus 37.1 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

Qwen3 Max does, with 262K tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do gpt-oss-20b and Qwen3 Max share?

24 benchmarks have published results for both models. gpt-oss-20b has 34 scored results on Noometry and Qwen3 Max has 33.