Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run

gpt-oss-20b vs OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT

gpt-oss-20b scores 69.9 (B) on agent readiness against OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT's 56.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT leads on documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 6359 open weights comparisons

Which one, for what

gpt-oss-20b B

Best for Local agents on a 24 GB GPU or Mac that want a permissive licence, wide runtime support and documented structured output, one tool call at a time

Ahead on

  • Reach, 90 against 50
  • Risk, 85 against 55
  • Agent interface, 90 against 60

Watch for

No reply from OpenAI to any discussion since August 2025, and template reports wait unanswered

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT C

Best for Telecoms teams that want an open model for standards questions and RAG on their own hardware

Ahead on

  • Documentation and upkeep, 74 against 42

Watch for

BF16 only at 62.6 GB, with no GGUF or other quantised build from anyone we checked

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reach gpt-oss-20b +40

gpt-oss-20b 90

Memory earns 25, since OpenAI's own MXFP4 build is 13.76 GB and a fifth on top is 16.5 GB, just past the 16 GB band, and Ollama's 14 GB build lands in the same 24 GB band. Runtimes earn the full 25 from model code in released Transformers, vLLM and SGLang, the architecture in llama.cpp and the model in Ollama's library. Builds earn 10, because OpenAI ships one quantised precision, MXFP4, and the original and metal folders are the same weights for its reference code. Terms earn 15 for Apache 2.0, whose usage policy only asks users to follow the law. Download earns 10, since the repository isn't gated. Hosted earns 5, with five inference providers live for it on its Hugging Face page on 1 November 2026, while OpenAI's own API lists it with no usable rate limit and isn't counted.

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT 50

Memory 10, the publisher's only build is the BF16 safetensors, 62.55 GB for the 15 shards the index names, and 62.55 GB × 1.2 = 75.1 GB, above 64 GB and inside the reference machine's GPU share. Runtimes 15, the architecture is Gemma4ForConditionalGeneration, which vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 run from the safetensors files, three at 5 each. Builds 0, the publisher ships the BF16 weights only. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata, an OSI licence, with nothing added on the card. Download 10, gated is false on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account or terms. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps one inference provider, Featherless AI (live), short of the two the line needs. 10 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 50.

Documentation and upkeep OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT +32

gpt-oss-20b 42

The model card earns 17, covering six of the seven points and missing a statement of supported languages. Training data earns 10, a general description with a June 2024 cut-off and no sources or mix. Last change earns 5, because the files haven't changed since August 2025 and the reference code and harmony parser last changed on 1 and 5 November 2025, still within a year on 1 November 2026, while this year's commits only touch the browser tool, CI and a version number. Responsiveness earns 0, with no OpenAI reply to any of the 40 most recent discussions and none at all since August 2025. Version policy earns 5 for a first release kept in its own repository. File health earns 5, since template reports and an install report wait without a reply.

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT 74

Model card 14, Intended use, a long limitations section, the architecture and training method, the parameters (31B) and the language (English) are on the card. Training data 15, the card names the sources (3GPP, ETSI, ITU, GSMA, CAMARA, O-RAN and TM Forum material provided by GSMA), the overall sizes (15 billion raw tokens, over 1 trillion processed, about 440 billion used), the mix of example types and the processing tool, and lists what was left out. Last change 20, the last commit, on 1 November 2026, updated the card's links, resources, citation and contacts, nine days before this check. Responsiveness 20, Of the 3 discussions that aren't pull requests (7 August to 28 October 2026), 2 have a reply from the repository's owner, which is most. Version policy 0, the weights were replaced in place: uploads on 27 July, 3 August and 1 September 2026 under one name, with a standing notice on the card that they may change and that users should pin a revision, and no dated note of what changed. File health 5, the card describes 15 shards of about 62.6 GB while the repository still holds an earlier 14-shard set beside them, 126.8 GB in all. 14 + 15 + 20 + 20 + 0 + 5 = 74.

Risk gpt-oss-20b +30

gpt-oss-20b 85

File safety earns 25, since the weights are safetensors and metal/model.bin is OpenAI's own raw Metal format rather than pickle, and nothing in the repository runs as code (a judgement call on the .bin name). Provenance earns 15, files in OpenAI's own organisation and a checksum on every file. Safety evaluation earns 10, because the published safety results for this size are OpenAI's own, and the outside review covered gpt-oss-120b. Agent guidance earns 15 for an instruction hierarchy the model was trained to follow, with prompt-injection results, though OpenAI reports it trails o4-mini there. Licence risk keeps 15, with nothing to deduct under Apache 2.0. The security programme earns 5 for OpenAI's security.txt with a Bugcrowd contact. Public advisories for the gpt-oss code couldn't be checked, so that half scores as absent.

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT 55

File safety 25, safetensors only, with no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python files. Provenance 5, the files sit in a personal account, farbodtavakkoli, not in an organisation AT&T's or GSMA's site links to: GSMA's article names AT&T as the releaser without linking the repository, and the GitHub repository that links it is the same person's (0). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 10, the card says what the trained abstention covers (declining when context is missing, irrelevant or insufficient) and what to add around the model for agent use: an external tool runtime, validated tool schemas, permission controls, audit logging, safeguards and human review. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, field-of-use limit, threshold or change clause, nothing is added on the card, and the licence link resolves (200 on 10 November 2026). Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw found. 25 + 5 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 55.

Agent interface gpt-oss-20b +30

gpt-oss-20b 90

The chat template earns 20, a Jinja file in the repository. The tool-calling format earns 25, since OpenAI's harmony guide says how functions are declared and how calls come back, and OpenAI ships the openai-harmony parser. Trained tool calling earns 10, because each call ends the message and waits for its result, so it makes one call at a time. Structured output earns 15 for a JSON Schema given in the developer message, documented in the harmony guide. Reasoning control earns 10, with low, medium or high effort per request and the reasoning on its own channel, though it can't be switched off. Context earns 10 for 131,072 tokens, which OpenAI describes as trained in even though the config reaches it with YaRN.

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT 60

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository, 19,300 characters, the publisher's own. Tool-calling format 10, only the template says how tools are declared and how calls come back. Trained tool calling 20, the template loops over tool_calls, so it renders several calls in one turn, and the card says the training mix included general-purpose agentic tool-calling examples, while none were specific to telecoms. Structured output 0, the card doesn't document JSON or JSON Schema output. Reasoning control 0, the card says the model wasn't trained to produce or consume Gemma's thought channel and answers directly, so there is no thinking to switch or budget. Context 10, 262,144 positions in the text config, the base's native context. 20 + 10 + 20 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 60.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this rungpt-oss-20bOTel-2.0-LLM-31B-ITEdge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%259050gpt-oss-20b +40
Risk20%208555gpt-oss-20b +30
Agent interface10%109060gpt-oss-20b +30
Documentation and upkeep10%104274OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT +32
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 69.9/100C 56.8/100

Facts side by side

Factgpt-oss-20bOTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorOpenAIAT&T (Open Telco AI)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2025-08-262026-11-01
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)none

Verdicts

gpt-oss-20b

gpt-oss-20b is a cousin for reasoning, coding and single tool calls with structured output, under plain Apache 2.0. It needs about 17 GB with a working context, and five inference providers serve it. The main risks are that it trails o4-mini at keeping system instructions above user ones, and OpenAI hasn't answered a report since August 2025.

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT

A real telecoms post-training of Gemma 4 31B IT with an unusually candid card on what was and wasn't trained. It fits a 128 GB machine in BF16 only, with no quantised build, sits in a personal account, and its weights have been replaced in place. Tool-call format, structured output and safety results aren't documented.

Before you call either

gpt-oss-20b

  1. Start it with ollama run gpt-oss:20b (the build that fits the reference machine), or vllm serve openai/gpt-oss-20b with a current vLLM release rather than the card's pinned vllm==0.10.1+gptoss wheel
  2. Use the harmony format through the chat template or openai-harmony; OpenAI says the model doesn't work correctly without it
  3. Parse tool calls and reasoning with openai-harmony; calls come on the commentary channel ending in <|call|>, reasoning on the analysis channel
  4. Set effort with Reasoning: high (or low, medium) in the system message, or reasoning_effort in the template; medium is the default
  5. Ask for JSON by putting a JSON Schema under # Response Formats in the developer message
  6. Drop earlier reasoning after a final answer but pass it back after tool calls, and don't show the analysis channel to users
  7. Expect one tool call per turn; run several in sequence rather than in parallel

OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT

  1. Download the 15 shards the index names, not the whole repository, which is twice the size
  2. Pin a revision. The card says the weights may change under the same name
  3. Serve it with vLLM 0.19.0 or later and the repository's own chat template, not Gemma 4's
  4. Send no thinking flags. It answers directly and wasn't trained on Gemma's thought channel
  5. Use it as the generation stage of a RAG pipeline over telecom standards, with source attribution and human review
  6. Don't use it to run network tools unattended. The card says that hasn't been evaluated

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, gpt-oss-20b or OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT?

gpt-oss-20b scores 69.9 (B) on agent readiness against OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT's 56.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT leads on documentation and upkeep.

Other comparisons with gpt-oss-20b or OTel-2.0-LLM-31B-IT

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