AllocateGPT-5.5 vs OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B
On provider list prices, OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B costs $0.05 per million input tokens against $5 for GPT-5.5: 100.0x apart. Output is $0.20 against $30 (150.0x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.
GPT-5.5 OpenAI GPT-OSS 20BSpecifications and provider list prices from the Allocate catalog, checked 2026-07-08. Billed price is list plus the 7% transaction fee.
What the numbers say
Take 1,000,000 requests a month at 1,200 input and 350 output tokens each. That workload costs $130 a month on OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B and $16,500 on GPT-5.5 at list: a gap of $16,370, or 126.9x.
GPT-5.5 reads 400K tokens per request against 128K for OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B, 3.1x the window. That decides which one can take whole documents without splitting them.
Choose OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B for
- The lower list price ($0.05 in / $0.20 out per M tokens)
- Open weights you can fine-tune and own
- Fine-tuning under a permissive license (Apache 2.0)
Common questions
Which is cheaper, GPT-5.5 or OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B?
OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.05/$0.20 per million tokens in and out against $5/$30 for GPT-5.5. Billed on Allocate: $0.053/$0.21 against $5.35/$32.10, list plus 7%.
Which has the bigger context window?
GPT-5.5: 400,000 tokens (400K) against 131,072 (128K) for OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B.
Can I fine-tune GPT-5.5 or OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B?
OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B publishes open weights (Apache 2.0) and can be fine-tuned on your own data. GPT-5.5 is a closed model served over API; its weights are not available.
Related comparisons
Run the numbers on your workload
Or don’t choose. On Allocate a route name is the contract: point yours at one model today, swap to the other tomorrow, and compare them on your live traffic with per-token metering.