gpt-oss-20b (High) vs Granite 4.2 30B
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI or Granite 4.2 30B by IBM? 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
Granite 4.2 30B scores 3.7 points higher (12.7 vs 9.0) but costs 3.8× as much to run the benchmark ($111 vs $28.8; mid-range vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Granite 4.2 30B when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Granite 4.2 30B | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.0 | 12.7 | +41.1% Granite 4.2 30B is 41.1% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $28.81 | $110.83 | +284.7% Granite 4.2 30B is 3.8× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 15.23s | 55.20s | +262.4% Granite 4.2 30B is 262.4% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.05 / $0.22 | $0.16 / $0.65 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Granite 4.2 30B vs gpt-oss-20b (High): 41.1% more intelligence, 284.7% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 262.4% slower end-to-end.
Today's Pareto frontier
Against the frontier
- gpt-oss-20b (High) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6 Luna (Low) scores 21.50 for $10.6.
- Granite 4.2 30B is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, MiMo-V2.6-Flash scores 37.90 for $110.
gpt-oss-20b (High)Granite 4.2 30BToday'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-oss-20b/granite-4-2-30b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-oss-20b/granite-4-2-30b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill