gpt-oss-20b
openaiapache-2.0text

gpt-oss-20b

Updated Jun 7, 2026
Parameters
21.5B
Context
131,072
License
apache-2.0
Updated
Jun 7, 2026

Intelligence benchmarks

Artificial Analysis indexes - compared with the best open and proprietary models

Intelligence

24.5

AA Index

Coding

18.5

AA Index

Agentic

27.6

AA Index

Math

89.3

AA Index

Intelligence Index - gpt-oss-20b vs. the field

Best open-weight models (you can run locally) and leading proprietary models for context.

Claude Opus 4.8 (max)
61.4
closed
GPT-5.5 (xhigh)
60.2
closed
Claude Opus 4.7 (max)
57.3
closed
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
57.2
closed
Qwen3.7 Max
56.6
closed
Kimi K2.6
53.9
open
MiMo-V2.5-Pro
53.8
open
gpt-oss-20b
24.5
open

Coding Index comparison

GPT-5.5 (xhigh)
59.1
closed
Claude Opus 4.8 (max)
56.7
closed
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview
55.5
closed
Claude Opus 4.7 (Non-reasoning, high)
53.1
closed
GPT-5.3 Codex (xhigh)
53.1
closed
DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max)
47.5
open
Kimi K2.6
47.1
open
gpt-oss-20b
18.5
open

Agentic Index comparison

Claude Opus 4.8 (max)
77.8
closed
GPT-5.5 (xhigh)
74.1
closed
Claude Opus 4.7 (max)
71.3
closed
Gemini 3.5 Flash (medium)
70.4
closed
MiniMax-M3
68.6
closed
MiMo-V2.5-Pro
67.4
open
DeepSeek V4 Pro (Max)
67.2
open
gpt-oss-20b
27.6
open

Math Index comparison

Nova 2.0 Lite (high)
94.3
closed
gpt-oss-120b (high)
93.4
open
NVIDIA Nemotron 3 Nano
91
open
K-EXAONE
90.3
open
Nova 2.0 Omni (medium)
89.7
closed
gpt-oss-20B (high)
89.3
open
Nova 2.0 Pro Preview (medium)
89
closed

Benchmark data from Artificial Analysis · updated 2026-06-07.

Standard benchmarks

Performance across standard evaluations

BenchmarkScore
MMLUPRO74.8
GPQA68.8

Will it run on your hardware?

Pick your GPU memory - see which quantizations fit, and the cheapest card for the rest

Runs on your 24 GB - best at Q5_K_M
2 of 4 quantizations fit gpt-oss-20b with real runtime overhead.
Q4_K_M
12 GB
Q5_K_M
15 GB
fits tight too big

Need an exact figure for your context length? Use the VRAM calculator.

Run it locally

Copy-paste - running in under a minute

vLLMOpenAI-compatible API
vllm serve openai/gpt-oss-20b

New to this? Start with Ollama · serve to many users with vLLM.

Deep dive

Notes, sources, and the full write-up

gpt-oss-20b

gpt-oss-20b is a 21.5B-parameter apache-2.0 model from openai. It scores 20.8 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (coding 14.4). At Q4_K_M it needs roughly 12 GB of VRAM, placing it in the 8–12 GB GPU hardware tier.

Specifications

SpecValue
Parameters21.5B
Context length131K tokens
Licenseapache-2.0
Modalitiestext
Released2025-08-04
Weightsopenai/gpt-oss-20b

Benchmarks

Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index - gpt-oss-20b vs. leading closed models:

ModelIntelligenceCodingGPQA
gpt-oss-20b20.814.461.1
GPT-5.5 (xhigh)60.259.193.5
Claude Opus 4.8 (max)61.456.792
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview57.255.594.1
Grok 4.3 (high)53.24190.1

Source: Artificial Analysis (2026-06-04).

VRAM requirements

QuantVRAMRuns on
Q4_K_M~12 GBRTX 3060 12GB, RTX 4070
Q5_K_M~15 GBRTX 4060 Ti 16GB, RTX 4080
Q8_0~23 GBRTX 3090, RTX 4090
FP16~43 GBRTX 6000 Ada, dual RTX 3090

VRAM is estimated from parameter count; MoE models still need all weights resident.

How to run

vLLM:

vllm serve openai/gpt-oss-20b

Popularity

gpt-oss-20b has 7,780,249 downloads in the last month on HuggingFace and 4,682 likes.

Frequently asked

Quick answers to common questions

How much VRAM does gpt-oss-20b need?

gpt-oss-20b with 21.5B parameters needs approximately 12 GB at Q4_K_M quantization. Use our VRAM calculator for an exact estimate.

Is gpt-oss-20b better than other openai models?

gpt-oss-20b has 21.5B parameters with 131,072 context - a strong choice for general use.

What license is gpt-oss-20b under?

gpt-oss-20b is released under the apache-2.0 license, making it suitable for most commercial and personal projects.

What hardware runs gpt-oss-20b well?

With 21.5B parameters, gpt-oss-20b requires adequate VRAM. High-end GPUs like the RTX 4090 (24GB), RTX 5090 (32GB), or Mac Studio with unified memory are good options. Check our hardware directory for specific recommendations.

What is the best quantization for gpt-oss-20b?

Q4_K_M is the recommended sweet spot - ~98% of FP16 quality at ~27% of the size. Q5_K_M (~15 GB) is an option if you have spare VRAM. Use our VRAM calculator to compare.

How long can gpt-oss-20b's context window handle?

gpt-oss-20b supports a 131,072-token context window - enough for very long documents, codebases, or multi-turn conversations. Real-world usable context may vary by implementation.

What models compete with gpt-oss-20b?

gpt-oss-20b competes with other models in its class. Browse our model directory for comparisons, benchmarks, and community reviews to find the best fit.

Nearby options

Similar models and compatible hardware by spec

Comments coming soon

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