API cost decision in 10 seconds

gpt-oss-20b (free) vs Nova Micro 1.0

Pick gpt-oss-20b (free) when budget and context both matter.

Page updated: 2026-05-26T15:08:08Z Data confirmed: 2026-05-26T18:08:02Z Prices normalized to USD per 1M tokens Sample workload: 1M input + 500K output

Budget verdict

Pick gpt-oss-20b (free) when budget and context both matter.

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-20b (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Nova Micro 1.0, saving $0.11 (100% lower).

Cost-first pickgpt-oss-20b (free)

Context-first pickgpt-oss-20b (free)

Sample savings$0.11100%

10x traffic gap$1.05

gpt-oss-20b (free) is cheaper on the standard workload and also has the larger context window. At 10x that traffic, the same price gap is about $1.05. Use the calculator below to replace the sample workload with your own token volume.

Cost sensitivity

Workload Sensitivity

Same prices, different token mixes.

gpt-oss-20b (free) stays cheaper across input-heavy, balanced, and output-heavy sample workloads.

Workload shape	Token mix	Better pick	gpt-oss-20b (free)	Nova Micro 1.0
Input-heavy / RAG	5M input + 500K output	gpt-oss-20b (free)	$0	$0.25
Balanced workload	1M input + 1M output	gpt-oss-20b (free)	$0	$0.18
Output-heavy chatbot	1M input + 5M output	gpt-oss-20b (free)	$0	$0.74

Cheaper input gpt-oss-20b (free) $0 vs $0.035 / 1M

gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for input tokens while Nova Micro 1.0 costs $0.04 per 1M tokens.

Cheaper output gpt-oss-20b (free) $0 vs $0.14 / 1M

gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for output tokens while Nova Micro 1.0 costs $0.14 per 1M tokens.

Larger context gpt-oss-20b (free) 131.07K vs 128K

gpt-oss-20b (free) has 3.07K more context (1.02x larger).

Sample workload gpt-oss-20b (free) $0 vs $0.11

gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.11.

Estimate your workload cost

Your Workload Cost

Prices are normalized to USD per 1M tokens.

Monthly input tokens Monthly output tokens

gpt-oss-20b (free) Calculating… Estimated API cost

Nova Micro 1.0 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-20b (free) has the lower input price; gpt-oss-20b (free) has the lower output price; gpt-oss-20b (free) offers the larger context window. For the 1M input plus 500K output sample, gpt-oss-20b (free) is cheaper for the standard workload.

For a 1M input token plus 500K output token workload, the estimated API cost is $0 for gpt-oss-20b (free) and $0.11 for Nova Micro 1.0.

Best Fit

Choose gpt-oss-20b (free) when you care most about lower input-token price, lower output-token price, and larger context window.

Choose Nova Micro 1.0 when its provider, model quality, latency, or availability is more important than the numeric price/context winner.

Decision Notes

On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-20b (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Nova Micro 1.0, saving $0.11 (100% lower).
gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for the standard workload while the other model is estimated at $0.11.
gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for input tokens while Nova Micro 1.0 costs $0.04 per 1M tokens.
gpt-oss-20b (free) is free for output tokens while Nova Micro 1.0 costs $0.14 per 1M tokens.
gpt-oss-20b (free) has 3.07K more context (1.02x larger).

Head-to-Head Specs

Feature	gpt-oss-20b (free) (OpenAI)	Nova Micro 1.0 (Amazon)
Input Price prompt tokens per 1M	$0	$0.035
Completion Price per 1M tokens	$0	$0.14
Sample Workload Cost 1M input + 500K output	$0	$0.11
Context Window	131.07K	128K
Release Date	2025-08-05	2024-12-05
Popularity	#72	#146

Use-Case Decision Matrix

Use case	Better pick	Why
Budget-constrained production	gpt-oss-20b (free)	On the standard 1M input plus 500K output workload, gpt-oss-20b (free) is estimated at $0 vs $0.11 for Nova Micro 1.0, saving $0.11 (100% lower).
High-volume input processing	gpt-oss-20b (free)	Lower prompt-token price matters most when prompts, retrieved passages, or documents dominate the bill.
Long responses and chatbots	gpt-oss-20b (free)	Lower output-token price matters most when assistants generate many completion tokens.
RAG or long-document work	gpt-oss-20b (free)	A larger context window leaves more room for retrieved passages, conversation history, or source files.

Related Alternatives

Same-provider lower-cost swaps

No lower-cost same-provider swap is currently tracked for this pair.

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.

Popular competitors

DeepSeek V4 Flash · DeepSeek · #1
Hy3 preview · Tencent · #2
Claude Opus 4.7 · Anthropic · #3
Claude Sonnet 4.6 · Anthropic · #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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Amazon catalog

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Open Amazon models

gpt-oss-20b (free)

gpt-oss-20b is an open-weight 21B parameter model released by OpenAI under the Apache 2.0 license. It uses a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture with 3.6B active parameters per forward pass, optimized for...

Nova Micro 1.0

Amazon Nova Micro 1.0 is a text-only model that delivers the lowest latency responses in the Amazon Nova family of models at a very low cost. With a context length...