gpt-oss-20b (High) vs Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI or Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) by NVIDIA? Intelligence, total benchmark cost, and end-to-end time from Artificial Analysis & other sources, snapshot 2026-10-27.
Trade-off
Verdict
Depends on your budget
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) scores 3.8 points higher (12.8 vs 9.0) but costs 46× as much to run the benchmark ($1319 vs $28.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.0 | 12.8 | +42.2% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 42.2% more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $28.81 | $1,318.62 | +4477.0% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 46× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 13.99s | 16.78s | +19.9% Nemotron 3 Super 120B… is 19.9% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.05 / $0.22 | $0.30 / $0.90 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text |
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) vs gpt-oss-20b (High): 42.2% more intelligence, 4477.0% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 19.9% 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.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Max) scores 51.80 for $1082.
gpt-oss-20b (High)Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B (Reasoning)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-oss-20b/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b · Markdown: /api/v1/compare/gpt-oss-20b/nvidia-nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b?format=md · llms.txt · agent skill