Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B vs GPT-OSS 120B
Benchmarks, API Token Pricing, Context Window & Speed Comparison
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Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B by NVIDIA and GPT-OSS 120B by OpenAI represent two of the frontier AI models analyzed in our comprehensive 2026 AI benchmark and LLM comparison. In this head-to-head evaluation, we examine API token pricing, context window specifications, inference speed (tokens per second), and empirical reasoning performance. From a pure economic perspective, GPT-OSS 120B holds a notable pricing advantage for token ingestion. On output generation, GPT-OSS 120B is more economical per million generated tokens. In data-heavy architectures requiring extensive repository or document analysis, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B provides an expanded memory horizon with 262K tokens. In latency-sensitive production environments, GPT-OSS 120B leads in tokens-per-second throughput, making it ideal for real-time conversational agents and high-concurrency workflows. Below is the complete empirical head-to-head breakdown across cost, speed, context, and capability matrices.
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Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B
Collaborative AgentCollaborative agent workhorse activating 12B out of 120B parameters, delivering flagship-grade reasoning at high batch throughput.
$0.30 / 1M
$0.80 / 1M
262.1K tokens
51%
GPT-OSS 120B
Open HeavyweightA heavyweight open-weight GPT reasoning model that runs on a single GPU.
$0.15 / 1M
$0.60 / 1M
131.1K tokens
45.5%
Key Differences at a Glance
- GPT-OSS 120B is 1.6x cheaper for API usage (input + output tokens combined).
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B has a larger context window (262K vs 131K tokens).
- GPT-OSS 120B is faster at 95 tok/s vs 85 tok/s.
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B leads on SWE-bench coding (51.0% vs 45.5%).
| Feature | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B | GPT-OSS 120B |
|---|---|---|
Intelligence Index Composite reasoning & knowledge score (0-100) | 53 | 56 |
Provider | NVIDIA | OpenAI |
Input Price Cost per million input tokens | $0.30 / 1M | $0.15 / 1M |
Output Price Cost per million output tokens | $0.80 / 1M | $0.60 / 1M |
Blended Price Weighted 7:2:1 cache:input:output per 1M | $0.18 / 1M | $0.10 / 1M |
Context Window Maximum input + output tokens | 262.1K tokens~393 A4 pages of text | 131.1K tokens~197 A4 pages of text |
Max Output Tokens Per single request | 33K | 33K |
Throughput Speed Tokens generated per second | 85 tok/s | 95 tok/s |
SWE-bench Verified Real-world software engineering | 51% | 45.5% |
GPQA Diamond Graduate-level reasoning | 64.5% | 68.5% |
Cached Input Price Prompt caching discount per 1M tokens | $0.06 / 1M | $0.01 / 1M |
Who Wins Where?
At-a-glance decision frameworkEmpirical Head-to-Head Benchmark Scores
Official evaluation metrics verified by independent third-party research labs.
Industry benchmark evaluating real-world GitHub issue resolution and multi-file debugging.
Challenging questions created by domain experts to test complex PhD-level reasoning.
Hardened reasoning and academic knowledge benchmark with reduced lucky-guess probability.
Crowdsourced human preference evaluation based on blind, head-to-head model battles.
Extremely difficult, closed-ended questions spanning the frontier of human expert knowledge.
Autonomous multi-step tasks executed inside a real command-line terminal environment.
Research-grade coding problems drawn from real scientific and numerical workloads.
Contamination-free competitive programming problems collected continuously over time.
American Invitational Mathematics Examination — multi-step Olympiad-level reasoning.
Accuracy when reasoning over very large inputs that fill the model context window.
Tokens emitted per second during active generation streaming.
Latency & Response Time
Time to first token (TTFT) and estimated end-to-end response time for a typical 500-token response.
Real-Time Interactive Token Cost Simulator
Adjust sliders to calculate projected monthly cloud API spending with prompt caching discounts.
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B · Strengths & Key Advantages
- 12B active parameter inference speed paired with 120B total capacity knowledge
- Outstanding 262K context handling with zero needle-in-a-haystack dropoff
- Engineered specifically for autonomous multi-agent swarm coordination
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Requires dual 80GB enterprise GPUs for local deployment
- Text-only without native multimodal image inputs
GPT-OSS 120B · Strengths & Key Advantages
- o4-mini-class performance with fully open weights
- Runs on a single high-memory GPU thanks to MoE routing
- Strong tool calling for self-hosted agents
- Near-o4-mini quality on private infrastructure
Considerations & Trade-offs
- Still behind proprietary frontier models on reasoning
- Text-only modality support
- Requires serious GPU memory to self-host
Token Use & Task Economics
Estimated cost and token consumption to complete one representative agentic task.
| Metric | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B | GPT-OSS 120B |
|---|---|---|
Cost per Task Estimated USD to finish one task | $0.38 | $0.14 |
Output Tokens / Task Tokens generated per task | 38K | 45K |
Reasoning Tokens / Task Thinking tokens burned per task | 18K | 22K |
Technical Specifications
Architecture, release timeline, capabilities, and modalities.
| Feature | Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B | GPT-OSS 120B |
|---|---|---|
| Official API Model ID (SDK) | nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b | gpt-oss-120b |
| API Protocol | OpenAI-Compatible REST / vLLM / SGLang / HuggingFace TGI | OpenAI Responses API & Chat Completions v1 |
| Release Date | 2026-03 | 2025-08 |
| Knowledge Cutoff | January 2026 | June 2024 |
| Architecture | High-Throughput Sparse MoE (120B Total / 12B Active) | Sparse MoE transformer with reasoning |
| Parameters | 120B (12B active MoE) | 117B (5.1B active MoE) |
| Enterprise Rate Limits (RPM / TPM) | Unlimited (Hardware-bound on self-hosted GPU) / 10,000 RPM Cloud · Unlimited local throughput / 10M+ TPM Managed Cloud | Unlimited (Hardware-bound on self-hosted GPU) / 10,000 RPM Cloud · Unlimited local throughput / 10M+ TPM Managed Cloud |
| Long-Context Tier (>128K/200K) | Flat rate ($0.3/1M in) across full 262K window | Flat rate ($0.15/1M in) across full 131K window |
| Prompt Cache Policy & TTL | Cached input at $0.06/1M tokens | Automatic prefix caching at $0.015/1M (no extra cache-write fee) |
| Computer Use / GUI Agent | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) | API / CLI Tool-Use & DOM Agent ready (no raw pixel desktop click loop) |
| MCP & Parallel Tool Calling | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema | Native MCP Client/Server ready · Parallel function calling · 100% Strict JSON Schema |
| Web Search Grounding & Sandbox | Supported via external Tavily/Exa Search & E2B/Docker Sandbox tools | Native Web Search tool + Hosted Code Interpreter & File Search RAG |
| Official Fine-Tuning Support | Full Weights SFT, LoRA, QLoRA, DPO & GRPO RL (Unsloth / Axolotl / Llama-Factory) | Full Weights SFT, LoRA, QLoRA, DPO & GRPO RL (Unsloth / Axolotl / Llama-Factory) |
| Multimodal Token Billing | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) | Text BPE (~4 chars/token) |
| Quantization & Min GPU VRAM | BF16 / FP16, FP8 Dynamic, INT4 AWQ / GPTQ, GGUF (Q4_K_M / Q8_0) · 74 GB VRAM (4-bit Quantized) · 258 GB VRAM (Native BF16) | BF16 / FP16, FP8 Dynamic, INT4 AWQ / GPTQ, GGUF (Q4_K_M / Q8_0) · 73 GB VRAM (4-bit Quantized) · 252 GB VRAM (Native BF16) |
| Safety & Frontier Classification | Open-Weights System Card + Customizable Guardrail Layer (Llama Guard / ShieldGemma) | OpenAI Preparedness Framework Audited & System Card Published |
| Enterprise Compliance (ZDR/HIPAA/SOC2) | 100% Air-Gapped On-Premises / Private VPC · Full HIPAA, GDPR & SOC2 Control | 100% Air-Gapped On-Premises / Private VPC · Full HIPAA, GDPR & SOC2 Control |
| Input Modalities | text | text |
| Output Modalities | text | text |
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B vs GPT-OSS 120B: Quick Answers
Which is more intelligent, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B or GPT-OSS 120B?
GPT-OSS 120B is more intelligent. It scores 56 compared with 53 on the composite Intelligence Index.
Which model is faster?
GPT-OSS 120B is faster, generating 95 tokens per second compared with 85 tokens per second.
Which model is cheaper to run?
GPT-OSS 120B is cheaper at $0.10 per 1M tokens blended, compared with $0.18 (7:2:1 cache:input:output ratio).
Which model has lower latency?
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B has lower latency, with a time to first token of 0.46s compared with 0.48s.
Which model has a larger context window?
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B has a larger context window, supporting 262.1K tokens compared with 131.1K tokens.
Verdict
Verdict & Model Selection Recommendation: Choose Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B if your priority is Enterprise multi-agent architectures, massive data extraction, and autonomous coding. Its performance in demanding tasks justifies its operational token cost. Choose GPT-OSS 120B if your workflow prioritizes Self-hosted agents that need near-frontier quality on private data. For large-scale batch processing or customer-facing conversational interfaces, its balance of speed and economics delivers superior ROI.
Frequently asked questions
How does Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B compare to GPT-OSS 120B in API token pricing and cost per token?+
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B costs $0.30 per 1M input tokens and $0.80 per 1M output tokens, whereas GPT-OSS 120B costs $0.15 input and $0.60 output. Overall, GPT-OSS 120B is the more cost-effective model for high-volume API pipelines. Both models support prompt caching discounts of up to 90% for repeated prompt prefixes.
Which model has a larger context window: Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B or GPT-OSS 120B?+
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B supports a context window of 262K tokens (~197k words), while GPT-OSS 120B supports 131K tokens (~98k words). Therefore, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B can process more textual data and document context in a single prompt.
Which AI model is better for software engineering and coding: Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B or GPT-OSS 120B?+
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B scores 51% on SWE-bench Verified while GPT-OSS 120B scores 45.5%. For autonomous software engineering and multi-file debugging, Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B holds the verified benchmark lead.
What is the difference in reasoning capability and extended thinking between Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B and GPT-OSS 120B?+
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B features native chain-of-thought extended thinking mode with configurable reasoning effort. In contrast, GPT-OSS 120B provides chain-of-thought reasoning depth for complex math and science.
How does inference speed (tokens per second) compare between Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B and GPT-OSS 120B?+
Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B generates approximately 85 tokens per second, while GPT-OSS 120B delivers 95 tokens per second. In latency-sensitive production environments, GPT-OSS 120B provides faster time-to-first-token (TTFT) and higher streaming response velocity.
Can you implement a tiered LLM routing setup combining Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B and GPT-OSS 120B to optimize costs?+
Yes! High-efficiency architectures route high-frequency routine classification and conversational tasks to GPT-OSS 120B to save operational costs, and dynamically escalate complex architectural queries or reasoning tasks to Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B. This tiered routing pattern cuts overall API bills by up to 70%.
Understand key metrics like context window, token pricing, reasoning mode, and SWE-bench scores in our comprehensive AI glossary.
Related reading
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Benchmark scores, token prices, and rate limits evolve rapidly as AI labs release model updates. Always verify current specifications and pricing on the official provider documentation.
Sources: GetInfoUs Independent AI Benchmarks & Official API Specs