Head-to-head comparison

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs gpt-oss-120b

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B (NVIDIA) and gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI) compared on the ModelCap Index, API price, context window, provider availability, weight access and every public benchmark board they share. Figures are the same ones shown on the live rankings; nothing here is a hidden score.

Snapshot as of 13 September 2026

As of 13 September 2026, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B holds the stronger ModelCap Index position (#123 vs #124); and gpt-oss-120b ships open weights.

Which should you choose?

Choose Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B if…

you want the stronger overall ModelCap Index position — #123 against #124 (36.3 vs 36.2 points).
you want the more recently listed model — Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B was listed 18 March 2026, gpt-oss-120b 5 August 2025.

Choose gpt-oss-120b if…

you want to self-host: gpt-oss-120b ships open weights while Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B is restricted license.
you want provider choice — 19 listed API providers against 0.
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1 is your yardstick — 26.2% against 20.6%.
AA τ²-Bench Telecom is your yardstick — 65.8% against 53.2%.
AA Humanity's Last Exam is your yardstick — 19.6% against 12.0%.

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs gpt-oss-120b: specs, pricing and context

Specification comparison of Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and gpt-oss-120b
Field	Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3BNVIDIA	gpt-oss-120bOpenAI
ModelCap Index position	#123	#124
Index score	36.3	36.2
Evidence	Estimated	Measured
Input price / 1M tokens	Unlisted	$0.037
Output price / 1M tokens	Unlisted	$0.17
Context window	— tokens	131K tokens
Max output tokens	—	118K
API providers listed	0	19
Weight access	Restricted license	Open weights
Input modalities	Text	Text
First listed	18 March 2026	5 August 2025
Publisher	NVIDIA	OpenAI

Evidence: publisher-corpus-prior over 186 held-out anchors (58%); launch card against 3 resolved peers on 11 rows (42%); exceeds every named peer on 3 of 11 rows; optimism haircut 0 from cross-lab-probe; shrunk 3.3 up toward the measured corpus · 3 public benchmark observations across 3 boards. Prices are the lowest listed API offer per million tokens observed on the OpenRouter catalogue.

Benchmark scores: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs gpt-oss-120b

Public benchmark boards where Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or gpt-oss-120b has a published result
Board	Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B	gpt-oss-120b	Leads
Arena codingArena (LMArena)	—	13911383–1398	Only one result
SWE-benchSWE-bench (Princeton / SWE-agent team)	—	26.0%	Only one result
AA Intelligence IndexArtificial Analysis	—	12.3intelligence-index:v4.3:high	Only one result
AA Terminal-Bench 2.1Artificial Analysis	20.6%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B":reasoning=true	26.2%terminal-bench:2.1:terminus-2:e2b:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="gpt-oss-120b (high)":reasoning=true	gpt-oss-120b
AA τ²-Bench TelecomArtificial Analysis	53.2%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B":reasoning=true	65.8%tau2:telecom:dual-control:pass-at-1:3-repeats:source-model="gpt-oss-120b (high)":reasoning=true	gpt-oss-120b
AA Humanity's Last ExamArtificial Analysis	12.0%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B":reasoning=true	19.6%hle:may-2025:text-only-2158:no-tools:pass-at-1:source-model="gpt-oss-120b (high)":reasoning=true	gpt-oss-120b

Scores are the sources' own published figures for each model's best evaluated configuration; ModelCap never re-runs a benchmark.

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Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs gpt-oss-120b: common questions

Is Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B better than gpt-oss-120b?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B ranks higher on the ModelCap Index as of 13 September 2026: #123 against #124. That is a capability ranking built from public benchmark evidence with published uncertainty; whether it is "better" for you also depends on price, context and where you can run it. Their published uncertainty intervals overlap, so the rank difference alone does not establish a reliable capability advantage for your workload.

Is Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B cheaper than gpt-oss-120b?

At least one of the two has no listed API price on ModelCap right now, so no price comparison is made.

Which has the bigger context window, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or gpt-oss-120b?

Both publish a —-token context window.

Which is better for coding, Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B or gpt-oss-120b?

AA Terminal-Bench 2.1: Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B 20.6%, gpt-oss-120b 26.2% — gpt-oss-120b leads.

Are Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and gpt-oss-120b open-weight models?

Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B: Restricted license. gpt-oss-120b: Open weights. Open weights mean the checkpoint can be downloaded and self-hosted under its licence; API-only models are available solely through hosted endpoints.

Where can I run Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and gpt-oss-120b?

ModelCap currently lists 0 API providers for Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B and 19 for gpt-oss-120b, from the OpenRouter catalogue snapshot the site serves; each model page lists the providers and their prices.

How current is this Nemotron Cascade 2 30B A3B vs gpt-oss-120b comparison?

Every figure comes from the sealed ModelCap dataset published 13 September 2026; the page re-renders within a minute of each data refresh, and the ModelCap Index positions are the same ones shown on the live rankings.