API cost decision in 10 seconds

gpt-oss-120b vs Phi 4

Pick gpt-oss-120b when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-06-13T07:08:03Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick gpt-oss-120b when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-120b is estimated at $0.13 vs $0.14 for Phi 4, saving $0.006 (4.4% lower).

Cost-first pickgpt-oss-120b

Context-first pickgpt-oss-120b

Sample savings$0.0064.4%

10x traffic gap$0.06

gpt-oss-120b is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.06. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

Cost winner changes by workload shape: input-heavy / RAG favors gpt-oss-120b, balanced workload favors Phi 4, and output-heavy chatbot favors Phi 4.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	gpt-oss-120b	Phi 4
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	gpt-oss-120b	$0.29	$0.4
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Phi 4	$0.22	$0.21
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Phi 4	$0.94	$0.77

Cheaper input gpt-oss-120b $0.039 vs $0.065 / 1M

gpt-oss-120b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).

Cheaper output Phi 4 $0.18 vs $0.14 / 1M

Phi 4 is $0.04 cheaper per 1M output tokens (22.2% lower; 1.29x difference).

Larger context gpt-oss-120b 131.07K vs 16.38K

gpt-oss-120b has 114.69K more context (8x larger).

Sample workload gpt-oss-120b $0.13 vs $0.14

gpt-oss-120b is $0.006 cheaper on the standard workload (4.4% lower).

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

gpt-oss-120b Calculating… Estimated API cost

Phi 4 Calculating… Estimated API cost

Cheaper for this workload Calculating… Difference: calculating…

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

Verdict

gpt-oss-120b has the lower input price; Phi 4 has the lower output price; gpt-oss-120b offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, gpt-oss-120b is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b and $0.14 for Phi 4.

Best Fit

Choose gpt-oss-120b when you care most about lower input-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Phi 4 when you care most about lower output-token price.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-120b is estimated at $0.13 vs $0.14 for Phi 4, saving $0.006 (4.4% lower).
gpt-oss-120b is $0.006 cheaper on the standard workload (4.4% lower).
gpt-oss-120b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (40% lower; 1.67x difference).
Phi 4 is $0.04 cheaper per 1M output tokens (22.2% lower; 1.29x difference).
gpt-oss-120b has 114.69K more context (8x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI)	Phi 4 (Microsoft)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.039	$0.065
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.18	$0.14
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.13	$0.14
Context Window	131.07K	16.38K
Release Date	2025-08-05	2025-01-10
Popularity	#22	#139

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	gpt-oss-120b	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-120b is estimated at $0.13 vs $0.14 for Phi 4, saving $0.006 (4.4% lower).
High-volume input processing	gpt-oss-120b	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	Phi 4	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	gpt-oss-120b	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

gpt-oss-120b (free) can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b (free) can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.
gpt-oss-20b can replace gpt-oss-120b when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.1.

Larger context near this budget

Owl Alpha offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Lyria 3 Pro Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
Lyria 3 Clip Preview offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.
DeepSeek V4 Flash (free) offers 1.05M context with $0 sample workload cost.

Popular competitors

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Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
MiMo-V2.5 · Xiaomi · #3
MiniMax M3 · MiniMax · #4

Cheaper alternatives

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Larger context alternatives

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Provider catalogs

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OpenAI catalog

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Microsoft catalog

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Open Microsoft models

gpt-oss-120b

gpt-oss-120b is an open-weight, 117B-parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) language model from OpenAI designed for high-reasoning, agentic, and general-purpose production use cases. It activates 5.1B parameters per forward pass and is optimized...

Phi 4

[Microsoft Research](/microsoft) Phi-4 is designed to perform well in complex reasoning tasks and can operate efficiently in situations with limited memory or where quick responses are needed. At 14 billion...