Gemma 4 26B A4B is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
API cost decision in 10 seconds
Gemma 4 26B A4B vs gpt-oss-safeguard-20b
The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.
Page updated:
Data confirmed:
Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens
Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output
Budget verdict
The standard workload cost is tied; choose by context window, provider fit, latency, or model quality.
Both models are estimated at $0.23 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
Cost-first pickTie
Context-first pickGemma 4 26B A4B
Sample savings$00%
10x traffic gap$0
Context-window winner: Gemma 4 26B A4B. Cost does not separate this pair on the standard workload, so the next decision point is context window and model behavior.
Cost sensitivity
Workload Sensitivity
Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors Gemma 4 26B A4B, balanced workload favors gpt-oss-safeguard-20b, and output-heavy chatbot favors gpt-oss-safeguard-20b.
| Workload shape | Token mix | Better pick | Gemma 4 26B A4B | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Input-heavy / RAG | 5M input + 500K output | Gemma 4 26B A4B | $0.46 | $0.53 |
| Balanced workload | 1M input + 1M output | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b | $0.39 | $0.38 |
| Output-heavy chatbot | 1M input + 5M output | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b | $1.71 | $1.57 |
gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M output tokens (9.1% lower; 1.1x difference).
Gemma 4 26B A4B has 131.07K more context (2x larger).
gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is $0 cheaper on the standard workload (0% lower).
Estimate your workload cost
Your Workload Cost
This estimate uses normalized public API pricing per 1M tokens. It is a planning aid, not a billing quote. Verify provider pricing, limits, and terms before production use.
Quick Decision
Gemma 4 26B A4B has the lower input price; gpt-oss-safeguard-20b has the lower output price; Gemma 4 26B A4B offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is cheaper for the standard workload.
For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.23 for Gemma 4 26B A4B and $0.22 for gpt-oss-safeguard-20b.
Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.
Choose gpt-oss-safeguard-20b when you care most about lower output-token price.
- Both models are estimated at $0.23 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload.
- gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is $0 cheaper on the standard workload (0% lower).
- Gemma 4 26B A4B is $0.01 cheaper per 1M input tokens (20% lower; 1.25x difference).
- gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M output tokens (9.1% lower; 1.1x difference).
- Gemma 4 26B A4B has 131.07K more context (2x larger).
| Feature | Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google) | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Input Price prompt tokens per 1M | $0.06 | $0.075 |
| Completion Price per 1M tokens | $0.33 | $0.3 |
| Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output | $0.23 | $0.22 |
| Context Window | 262.14K | 131.07K |
| Release Date |
Use-Case Decision Matrix
| Use case | Better pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-constrained production | Tie | Both models are estimated at $0.23 for the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload. |
| High-volume input processing | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill. |
| Long responses and chatbots | gpt-oss-safeguard-20b | Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens. |
| RAG or long-document work | Gemma 4 26B A4B | A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files. |
Related Alternatives
- Gemma 4 26B A4B (free) can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Gemma 4 31B (free) can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Pro Preview can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Lyria 3 Clip Preview can replace Gemma 4 26B A4B when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
- Llama 4 Scout offers 10M context with $0.23 sample workload cost.
- Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash offers 1.05M context with $0.2 sample workload cost.
- DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
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- Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
- Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
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Cheaper alternatives
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Open OpenAI modelsGemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind. Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...
gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is a safety reasoning model from OpenAI built upon gpt-oss-20b. This open-weight, 21B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model offers lower latency for safety tasks like content classification, LLM filtering, and trust...