# OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B vs GLM 5.2

On provider list prices, OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B costs $0.05 per million input tokens against $1.40 for GLM 5.2: 28.0x apart. Output is $0.20 against $4.40 (22.0x). On Allocate both bill at list plus the 7% transaction fee.

## Specifications

| | OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B | GLM 5.2 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lab | OpenAI | Zai Org |
| Access | Open weights | Open weights |
| Context window | 128K tokens | 256K tokens |
| List price, input | $0.05 / M tokens | $1.40 / M tokens |
| List price, output | $0.20 / M tokens | $4.40 / M tokens |
| Cached input | n/a | $0.26 / M tokens |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Not listed |
| Fine-tunable | Yes | Yes |

Specifications 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 $3,220 on GLM 5.2 at list: a gap of $3,090, or 24.8x.

GLM 5.2 reads 256K tokens per request against 128K for OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B, 2.0x 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)
- Fine-tuning under a permissive license (Apache 2.0)

## Choose GLM 5.2 for

- Agents on open weights
- Code and structured outputs
- Fine-tuning toward an owned model

## Common questions

### Which is cheaper, OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B or GLM 5.2?

OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B, on this workload shape. At list prices it is $0.05/$0.20 per million tokens in and out against $1.40/$4.40 for GLM 5.2. Billed on Allocate: $0.053/$0.21 against $1.50/$4.71, list plus 7%.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GLM 5.2: 262,144 tokens (256K) against 131,072 (128K) for OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B.

### Can I fine-tune OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B or GLM 5.2?

Both publish open weights (OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B: Apache 2.0; GLM 5.2: Not listed), so both can be fine-tuned. On Allocate the trained weights stay inside your boundary and belong to you.

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[HTML page](https://allocate.network/compare/openai-gpt-oss-20b-vs-z-ai-glm-5-2) · [OpenAI GPT-OSS 20B](https://allocate.network/models/openai-gpt-oss-20b.md) · [GLM 5.2](https://allocate.network/models/z-ai-glm-5-2.md) · [Machine-readable catalog](https://allocate.network/catalog.json)