gpt-oss-120b vs Muse Spark 1.1

OpenAI · US  |  Meta · US · Updated June 2026

Quick verdict

Pick gpt-oss-120b for self-hostable on a single 80gb h100 gpu via mxfp4 or configurable reasoning depth (low/medium/high). Pick Muse Spark 1.1 for scaled tool use — 88.1 on mcp atlas, ahead of opus 4.8 and gpt-5.5 (vendor-reported) or subagent orchestration — trained to run as a main agent or a subagent that escalates when stuck. Choose gpt-oss-120b if you need self-hosting or data privacy; Muse Spark 1.1 if you want a managed API.

gpt-oss-120b (OpenAI) and Muse Spark 1.1 (Meta) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. gpt-oss-120b is openAI's open-weight 117B-parameter MoE reasoning model (5.1B active) that runs on a single 80GB GPU and approaches o4-mini on reasoning, coding, and tool use. Muse Spark 1.1 is meta's first paid, closed-weight frontier model — class-leading agentic tool use at a quarter of rivals' price, but it trails on coding. They diverge most on price, context window and open vs. closed weights — each quantified below from the models' real specs.

Key differences at a glance

Side-by-side specs

Specgpt-oss-120bMuse Spark 1.1
ProviderOpenAI (US) Meta (US)
ReleasedAugust 5, 2025 July 9, 2026
Context window131K (~197 pages) 1M (~1,573 pages)
Price (in/out)Open weight (self-host / free) $1.25/$4.25 per 1M tokens
Open weight?Yes — self-hostable No — API only
Modalitiestext, code text, image, video, code
SWE-Bench Verified62.4% Not published
MRCR v2 @ 1MNot published 54.1%

Who wins what

Self-hostable on a single 80GB H100 GPU via MXFP4

gpt-oss-120b

Open weights make this possible at all — Muse Spark 1.1 is API-only, so it cannot leave the vendor's servers.

Configurable reasoning depth (low/medium/high)

gpt-oss-120b

OpenAI's open-weight 117B-parameter MoE reasoning model (5.1B active) that runs on a single 80GB GPU and approaches o4-mini on reasoning, coding, and tool use — and its weights are open while Muse Spark 1.1 is API-only.

Agentic tool use, function calling, and code execution

gpt-oss-120b

gpt-oss-120b lists agentic tool use, function calling, and code execution among its strengths; Muse Spark 1.1 does not.

Scaled tool use — 88.1 on MCP Atlas, ahead of Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 (vendor-reported)

Muse Spark 1.1

Meta's first paid, closed-weight frontier model — class-leading agentic tool use at a quarter of rivals' price, but it trails on coding — and it carries the larger 1M context.

Subagent orchestration — trained to run as a main agent or a subagent that escalates when stuck

Muse Spark 1.1

Meta's first paid, closed-weight frontier model — class-leading agentic tool use at a quarter of rivals' price, but it trails on coding — and it is the newer of the two.

Professional agentic work — 54.7 on JobBench, a wide margin over rivals (vendor-reported)

Muse Spark 1.1

Muse Spark 1.1 lists professional agentic work — 54.7 on JobBench, a wide margin over rivals (vendor-reported) among its strengths; gpt-oss-120b does not.

Lowest cost at scale

gpt-oss-120b

Its weights are open, so at volume you pay for your own hardware instead of Muse Spark 1.1's $1.25/$4.25 per 1M tokens.

Largest single-prompt input

Muse Spark 1.1

Its 1M window is about 8× larger than gpt-oss-120b's 131K, fitting roughly 1,573 pages in one prompt.

Which should you pick?

A cost-sensitive startup shipping high volume

gpt-oss-120b

At Open weight (self-host / free) it undercuts Muse Spark 1.1, and on millions of tokens that margin decides the monthly bill.

Someone analysing very long documents or codebases

Muse Spark 1.1

Larger 1M window fits more in one prompt.

A team with data-privacy or self-hosting needs

gpt-oss-120b

Open weights let you run it on your own hardware; Muse Spark 1.1 is API-only.

Anyone whose priority is self-hostable on a single 80gb h100 gpu via mxfp4

gpt-oss-120b

It is specifically built for that.

Anyone whose priority is scaled tool use — 88.1 on mcp atlas, ahead of opus 4.8 and gpt-5.5 (vendor-reported)

Muse Spark 1.1

That is its strongest area.

gpt-oss-120b: where it fits

OpenAI's open-weight 117B-parameter MoE reasoning model (5.1B active) that runs on a single 80GB GPU and approaches o4-mini on reasoning, coding, and tool use. Released August 5, 2025 by OpenAI, it is built for self-hostable on a single 80GB H100 GPU via MXFP4, configurable reasoning depth (low/medium/high), agentic tool use, function calling, and code execution, and full chain-of-thought visibility for debugging.

Its trade-offs are real: text-only, no image, audio, or video input, and 131K context and 5.1B active params trail the largest frontier closed models. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.

Muse Spark 1.1: where it fits

Meta's first paid, closed-weight frontier model — class-leading agentic tool use at a quarter of rivals' price, but it trails on coding. Released July 9, 2026 by Meta, it is built for scaled tool use — 88.1 on MCP Atlas, ahead of Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 (vendor-reported), subagent orchestration — trained to run as a main agent or a subagent that escalates when stuck, professional agentic work — 54.7 on JobBench, a wide margin over rivals (vendor-reported), and managing its own context: it compacts the 1M window mid-run instead of relying on external windowing.

Its trade-offs: not the coding leader its launch framing implied — Meta's own report concedes it trails Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 on every coding benchmark, the 1M window oversells its recall: 54.1 on MRCR v2 at 1M against GPT-5.5's 74.0, closed weights end the free, self-hostable Llama path — this is the first model Meta has charged for, and uS-only public preview behind a waitlist, and every benchmark is vendor-reported with no third-party replication. At $1.25 in / $4.25 out per million tokens, it sits in the mid price band.

The bottom line for this matchup

The defining split here is open vs. closed. gpt-oss-120b gives you weights you control — self-host it, fine-tune it, keep data in-house, pay only for hardware. Muse Spark 1.1 gives you a managed, always-updated API with no infrastructure to run. Teams with GPUs, privacy requirements, or huge volume often favour the open model; teams that want zero ops and the latest capabilities favour the closed one. Capability is close enough that this operational question, not the benchmark, usually decides it.

Want both gpt-oss-120b and Muse Spark 1.1 without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.

See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Is gpt-oss-120b or Muse Spark 1.1 better for coding?

Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Muse Spark 1.1, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, gpt-oss-120b leans toward self-hostable on a single 80gb h100 gpu via mxfp4 while Muse Spark 1.1 leans toward scaled tool use — 88.1 on mcp atlas, ahead of opus 4.8 and gpt-5.5 (vendor-reported), and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.

Which is cheaper, gpt-oss-120b or Muse Spark 1.1?

gpt-oss-120b is open-weight, so self-hosting means no per-token fee (you pay for hardware instead), while Muse Spark 1.1 is API-metered at $1.25/$4.25 per 1M tokens. For most teams without GPUs, the API model is cheaper to start; at very high volume, self-hosting can win.

Which has the bigger context window?

Muse Spark 1.1 — 1M vs 131K, about 8× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.

Can I use both gpt-oss-120b and Muse Spark 1.1 together?

Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you gpt-oss-120b, Muse Spark 1.1 and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.

Which is newer, gpt-oss-120b or Muse Spark 1.1?

Muse Spark 1.1 — released July 9, 2026, about 11 months after gpt-oss-120b.

Related comparisons

Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.