gpt-oss-20b (High) vs Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)
Which is better for the money: gpt-oss-20b (High) by OpenAI or Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) by Alibaba? 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
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) scores 9.2 points higher (18.2 vs 9.0) but costs 31× as much to run the benchmark ($896 vs $28.8; premium vs budget cost classes). They are not alternatives at one budget: pick Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) when you need intelligence above 9.0, and gpt-oss-20b (High) when 9.0 is enough.
| Metric | gpt-oss-20b (High) | Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence (higher is better) | 9.0 | 18.2 | +102.2% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 2.0× more intelligent |
| Total AA cost (lower is better) | $28.81 | $896.39 | +3011.4% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 31× more expensive |
| End-to-end time (lower is better) | 14.42s | 46.69s | +223.8% Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reas… is 223.8% slower |
| Price per 1M tokens (in / out) | $0.05 / $0.22 | $0.38 / $2.25 | |
| Input modalities | Text | Text, Image, Video |
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) vs gpt-oss-20b (High): 102.2% more intelligence, 3011.4% more cost to run the AA benchmark, and 223.8% 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.
- Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning) is off the frontier: at the same or lower cost, GPT-6.1 Sol (Xhigh) scores 51.00 for $662.
gpt-oss-20b (High)Qwen3.6 35B A3B (Reasoning)Today's Pareto frontierOpen-weights frontierEvery other model
Matchup
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