gpt-oss (OpenAI)
A Tier · 8.1/10
OpenAI's FIRST open-weight models -- gpt-oss-120b (single 80GB GPU, near parity with o4-mini on reasoning) and gpt-oss-20b (runs on 16GB edge devices). Apache 2.0. Launched 2025-08-05. gpt-oss-safeguard ships in 2026 as the safety-tuned variant
Score Breakdown
The Good and the Bad
What we like
- +First-ever OpenAI open-weight release -- the brand halo alone makes this a mandatory evaluation for anyone working with open weights. The fact that OpenAI shipped it (after years of 'open-ness' debates) is itself historically significant
- +gpt-oss-120b approaches o4-mini on reasoning benchmarks while running on a single 80GB GPU -- one of the best single-GPU frontier reasoning options available in the open-weight category
- +gpt-oss-20b hits 16GB VRAM requirements (runs on consumer RTX 4080 / Apple Silicon M3 Ultra / similar) while roughly matching o3-mini -- a uniquely strong edge-deployable reasoning model
- +Apache 2.0 license with no 'acceptable use policy' carve-outs -- genuinely permissive, unlike Llama's terms. Commercial deployments face zero licensing friction
What could be better
- −Released 2025-08-05, so by April 2026 it is not the newest open-weight option -- DeepSeek V3.2, Qwen 3.5/3.6, GLM-5.1, and Granite 4 have all shipped later iterations. gpt-oss is still excellent but is no longer front-page hot
- −No multimodal inputs -- text only. For vision or audio, pair with Qwen3.5-Omni, Llama 4 multimodal, or a separate vision model
- −OpenAI has not published a follow-up to gpt-oss (no gpt-oss-v2 or similar as of April 2026). Single release, unclear if more is coming -- could be a one-time brand move rather than ongoing commitment
- −gpt-oss-safeguard (the safety-tuned variant, 2026 release) is narrower in capability than the base models -- for research / red-team / full-capability work, use the original releases
Pricing
Self-hosted (Free, Apache 2.0)
- ✓First OpenAI open-weight release ever
- ✓Weights on Hugging Face + Ollama + llama.cpp + vLLM
- ✓Apache 2.0 license -- unrestricted commercial use
- ✓No telemetry, no phone-home, runs fully offline
API (OpenRouter / Together / Fireworks)
- ✓gpt-oss-120b: ~$0.15 in / $0.60 out
- ✓gpt-oss-20b: ~$0.07 in / $0.30 out
- ✓Competitive per-token pricing across hosted providers
System Requirements
Hardware needed to self-host. Min = smallest viable setup (usually heavy quantization). Max = full-precision / production-grade.
| Model variant | Min | Max |
|---|---|---|
| gpt-oss-120b (flagship reasoning)Apache 2.0 -- unrestricted commercial use | 1× 80 GB GPU (H100 / A100 FP16) | 2× H100 for production serving |
| gpt-oss-20b (edge reasoning)Runs locally on a decent consumer setup; Apple M3 Ultra handles it well | 16 GB VRAM (RTX 4080) or 32 GB Apple Silicon unified memory | 1× A100 40 GB FP16 |
| gpt-oss-safeguard (2026 safety-tuned variant)Narrower capability than base; tuned for deployment in safety-sensitive contexts | Same as base (120b or 20b) | Same as base |
Known Issues
- Initial community quantizations (Q4 and below) showed degradation on reasoning tasks versus FP16 -- the MoE routing layers are sensitive to quantization. Q5/Q6 is the practical sweet spot for gpt-oss-120bSource: Reddit r/LocalLLaMA, Hugging Face discussions · 2025-09
- gpt-oss did not make the transition to OpenAI's GPT-5.x tokenizer -- still uses the older tokenizer from the GPT-4 era. Compatible with existing tooling but slightly less token-efficient than frontier OpenAI API modelsSource: OpenAI open-models docs · 2025-08
Best for
Developers who want OpenAI-brand open-weight reasoning models for self-hosting or fine-tuning. Particularly good for single-GPU deployments (gpt-oss-120b on one 80GB card) or edge-device reasoning (gpt-oss-20b on 16GB consumer GPUs / Apple Silicon). Also good as a reliable baseline when comparing newer open-weight releases.
Not for
Anyone needing absolute bleeding-edge quality (DeepSeek V3.2 / V4, GLM-5.1, Qwen 3.6 are all stronger on most benchmarks as of April 2026). Also not for multimodal use cases -- gpt-oss is text-only.
Our Verdict
gpt-oss remains historically important as the first OpenAI open-weight release (August 2025), and the 120b model on a single 80GB GPU is still one of the cleanest single-card frontier-reasoning options in the open-weight category. By April 2026 it is no longer the bleeding edge -- DeepSeek V3.2, GLM-5.1, and Qwen 3.6 have all shipped stronger models -- but gpt-oss's combination of OpenAI brand + genuine Apache 2.0 + single-GPU 120b sizing makes it a durable default in any open-weight evaluation matrix. Worth adding to any shortlist; probably not first pick unless the OpenAI brand association matters for your stack.
Sources
- OpenAI: Introducing gpt-oss (accessed 2026-04-17)
- OpenAI Open Models hub (accessed 2026-04-17)
- Hugging Face: Welcome OpenAI gpt-oss (accessed 2026-04-17)
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