GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    Comparison

    As of August 20, 2026, GPT OSS 20B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) have the same blended API cost at $0.25 per 1 million input plus 1 million output tokens. GPT OSS 20B is $0.05 / $0.20 per million tokens versus Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) at $0.05 / $0.20. Sources: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com

    Sources: OpenAI API pricing (https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing); NVIDIA pricing (https://build.nvidia.com)

    GPT OSS 20B

    OpenAI

    $0.25blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.05

    Output

    $0.20

    131.1K ctx|Open Source
    vs

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    NVIDIA

    $0.25blended / 1M

    Input

    $0.05

    Output

    $0.20

    262.1K ctx|Open Source

    GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison

    Token pricing, specs, and benchmarks side by side

    Metric
    GPT OSS 20B
    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)
    Provider
    Provider
    OpenAI
    NVIDIA
    License
    Open Source
    Open Source
    Release Date
    2025-08-05
    2026-08-11
    Pricing (per 1M tokens)
    Input Price0%
    $0.05
    $0.05
    Output Price0%
    $0.20
    $0.20
    Blended (1M + 1M)
    $0.25
    $0.25
    Model Details
    Context Window
    131.1K
    262.1K
    Max Output Tokens
    32.8K
    262.1K
    Knowledge Cutoff
    N/A
    N/A
    Throughput
    1000 tok/s
    N/A
    Benchmarks
    10.9%
    11.7%
    71.5%
    75.4%
    68.9%
    32.6%
    37.0%
    71.9%
    52%
    86.0%
    94.2%
    85.3%
    74.3%
    53.1%
    42.5%
    82.9%
    89.0%
    71.6%
    81.9%
    17.5%
    85.4%
    63.7%
    Benchmark Wins
    GPT OSS 20B 0|3 Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)

    Verdict

    GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B): the bottom line

    GPT OSS 20B offers significantly lower pricing, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads on benchmark performance. Your choice depends on whether cost efficiency or raw capability matters more for your use case.

    GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) FAQ

    Which is cheaper, GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    As of August 20, 2026, GPT OSS 20B is 0% cheaper on blended LLM API pricing. GPT OSS 20B costs $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.20 per million output tokens ($0.25 blended 1M-in + 1M-out). Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.05 / $0.20 per million tokens ($0.25 blended). Sources: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com. The cheapest LLM for your app still depends on how many output tokens you generate.

    How much does GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) cost per million tokens?

    GPT OSS 20B OpenAI API pricing is $0.05 input and $0.20 output per million tokens via OpenAI. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) NVIDIA API pricing is $0.05 input and $0.20 output per million tokens via NVIDIA. Use those four numbers, not ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription prices, when you are comparing APIs.

    Which is better for coding, GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) has a published SWE-bench Verified score of 51.6%. GPT OSS 20B does not have that eval on this page yet.

    What is the context window for GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    GPT OSS 20B supports a 131K token context window, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports 262K tokens. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) offers a larger context window. Filling a larger window bills more input tokens, so the cheaper-per-million model can still cost more on long documents.

    Which model performs better on benchmarks, GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) leads on 3 of 3 shared benchmarks versus GPT OSS 20B's 0 wins. Check the comparison table for GPQA Diamond, SWE-bench, MMLU, HLE, and the other evals we track. Token price and benchmark score together are the usual LLM comparison, not either number alone.

    Is GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) better for production use?

    Both GPT OSS 20B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) are production API models. For cost-sensitive production traffic, GPT OSS 20B has better economics on the blended 1M-in + 1M-out scale. For maximum capability, weight the benchmark table for your domain. Many production stacks route cheap models for drafts and a frontier model for the hard turn, which is usually cheaper than sending everything to the expensive API.

    Can I switch between GPT OSS 20B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) in my app?

    Yes. Call GPT OSS 20B through OpenAI and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) through NVIDIA with separate API keys, or through a gateway that already wraps both. Keep prompts in tokens, not characters, when you estimate the invoice. AnotherWrapper templates can swap providers without rewriting auth and billing.

    How accurate is this GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) pricing data?

    List rates are the latest published OpenAI API pricing and NVIDIA API pricing, quoted per million tokens. Official rate sheets: https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/pricing and https://build.nvidia.com. Prompt caching, batch APIs, and committed-use discounts can change the invoice. Benchmark scores are from official publications and independent evals, updated as new numbers land.

    What is the output token limit for GPT OSS 20B and Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    GPT OSS 20B supports up to 33K output tokens per request, while Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) supports up to 262K output tokens. Output tokens are usually the expensive half of API pricing, so a higher max output cap is a capability, not a discount.

    Which model has better throughput, GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B)?

    GPT OSS 20B has a measured throughput of approximately 1000 tokens/second. Throughput data for Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) is not yet available. Throughput (tokens per second) and time-to-first-token are why two models with the same per-million-token price can still feel different in chat and agents.

    How do I switch the models in this GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) comparison?

    Use the model pickers at the top of this LLM comparison. Search any model in the index and the URL updates. Open GPT OSS 20B or Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) from the sidebar for the single-model API pricing page, or go back to the LLM pricing table to sort by cheapest blended cost.

    GPT OSS 20B vs Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) pricing

    This comparison covers API pricing, context window, throughput, and benchmark scores. GPT OSS 20B costs $0.05/M input and $0.20/M output. Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B A3B) costs $0.05/M input and $0.20/M output.

    Rank both on the LLM leaderboard, SWE-bench, and Humanity's Last Exam.

    The index

    All Large Language Models

    280 models across 33 providers. Search or jump to a lab — every model page stays linked here.

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    Upstage

    1 models

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