Ahead of the expected release of GPT-5, OpenAI has introduced two open-weight Artificial Intelligence models: GPT-OSS-20B and GPT-OSS-120B. These new models are claimed to be compatible with consumer devices like laptops and even phones.
Released under the Apache 2.0 license, these models are free to download, customize, and deploy via Hugging Face, making them widely accessible to developers.
OpenAI says these models are optimized for consumer-grade hardware and trained using reinforcement learning alongside techniques from its more advanced models like O3. The larger GPT-OSS-120B performs close to OpenAI’s O4 mini in reasoning benchmarks while running on an 80GB GPU, while the smaller GPT-OSS-20B matches the O3 mini on common benchmarks with just 16GB of memory.
Unlike OpenAI’s flagship models, these are text-only and can’t generate images or videos. However, they support agentic workflows, meaning they can integrate with tools like web search and Python code execution. They also offer adjustable reasoning effort, full chain-of-thought processing, and structured outputs for customization.
CEO Sam Altman called the release a “big deal”, claiming these are the best open-weight models available, with performance rivaling the O4 mini. He emphasized OpenAI’s efforts to reduce safety risks, particularly in biosecurity, while believing the benefits outweigh potential downsides.
Source: OpenAI