API cost decision in 10 seconds

🔥gpt-oss-120b vs Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507

Pick Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T19:08:13Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.12 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.008 (6.2% lower).

Cost-first pickQwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507

Context-first pickQwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507

Sample savings$0.0086.2%

10x traffic gap$0.08

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $0.08. 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 Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507, and output-heavy chatbot favors Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	gpt-oss-120b	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	gpt-oss-120b	$0.29	$0.4
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507	$0.22	$0.17
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507	$0.94	$0.57

Cheaper input gpt-oss-120b $0.039 vs $0.071 / 1M

gpt-oss-120b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (45.1% lower; 1.82x difference).

Cheaper output Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 $0.18 vs $0.1 / 1M

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is $0.08 cheaper per 1M output tokens (44.4% lower; 1.8x difference).

Larger context Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 131.07K vs 262.14K

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 has 131.07K more context (2x larger).

Sample workload Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 $0.13 vs $0.12

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is $0.008 cheaper on the standard workload (6.2% 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

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 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; Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 has the lower output price; Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 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 $0.12 for Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507.

Best Fit

Choose gpt-oss-120b when you care most about lower input-token price.

Choose Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 when you care most about lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.12 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.008 (6.2% lower).
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is $0.008 cheaper on the standard workload (6.2% lower).
gpt-oss-120b is $0.03 cheaper per 1M input tokens (45.1% lower; 1.82x difference).
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is $0.08 cheaper per 1M output tokens (44.4% lower; 1.8x difference).
Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 has 131.07K more context (2x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	🔥gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI)	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 (Qwen)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0.039	$0.071
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0.18	$0.1
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0.13	$0.12
Context Window	131.07K	262.14K
Release Date	2025-08-05	2025-07-21
Popularity	#20	#42

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 is estimated at $0.12 vs $0.13 for gpt-oss-120b, saving $0.008 (6.2% 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	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507	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.
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Instruct (free) can replace Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 when lower sample workload cost matters most: $0.

Larger context near this budget

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

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Open Qwen 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...

Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507

Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507 is a multilingual, instruction-tuned mixture-of-experts language model based on the Qwen3-235B architecture, with 22B active parameters per forward pass. It is optimized for general-purpose text generation, including instruction following,...