GPT-5 mini (High) vs gpt-oss-120b (High)
Which is better for the money: GPT-5 mini (High) by OpenAI or gpt-oss-120b (High) by OpenAI? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-25.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
GPT-5 mini (High) scores 5.2 points higher (16.8 vs 11.6) but costs 1.5× as much to run the benchmark ($189 vs $123; both mid-range class). Pick GPT-5 mini (High) when the extra intelligence is worth the premium, otherwise gpt-oss-120b (High).
| Metric | GPT-5 mini (High) | gpt-oss-120b (High) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 16.8 | 11.6 | −31.0% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 31.0% less intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $188.66 | $122.71 | −35.0% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 35.0% cheaper |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 60.90s | 11.44s | −81.2% gpt-oss-120b (High) is 81.2% faster |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.25 / $2.00 | $0.15 / $0.60 | |
| Input modalities | Text, Image | Text |
gpt-oss-120b (High) vs GPT-5 mini (High): 31.0% less intelligence, 35.0% less cost to run the AA benchmark, and 81.2% faster end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- GPT-5 mini (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, Claude Haiku 5.5 (Xhigh) scores 41.20 for $158.
- gpt-oss-120b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Max) scores 38.10 for $122.
GPT-5 mini (High)gpt-oss-120b (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/gpt-5-mini/gpt-oss-120b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-5-mini/gpt-oss-120b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill