DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) vs gpt-oss-20b (High)
Which is better for the money: DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) by DeepSeek or gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-26.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) scores 2.4 points higher (11.4 vs 9.0) but costs 16× as much to run the benchmark ($461 vs $28.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 11.4 | 9.0 | −21.1% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 21.1% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $460.74 | $28.81 | −93.7% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 93.7% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 19.94s | 14.95s | −25.0% gpt-oss-20b (High) is 25.0% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $2.00 / $4.00 | $0.05 / $0.22 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
gpt-oss-20b (High) vs DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25): 21.1% less intelligence, 93.7% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 25.0% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Medium) scores 47.80 for $361.
- gpt-oss-20b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
DeepSeek R1 (Jan '25)gpt-oss-20b (High)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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Accept: text/markdown or ?format=md returns this page as Markdown. JSON: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gpt-oss-20b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/deepseek-r1-0120/gpt-oss-20b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill