Extremely low cost at $0.075/$0.3 per 1M tokens, making high-volume moderation economically viable
Specialized safety classification likely outperforms general models on policy violation detection
Open-weights 20B architecture allows deployment flexibility and fine-tuning for domain-specific safety rules
128K context window supports moderating long documents or conversation threads in a single pass
Weaknesses
Narrow specialization means it performs poorly on general coding, writing, or reasoning tasks compared to GPT-4o or Claude Sonnet 4.6
Not a general-purpose model — using it outside safety/moderation contexts will yield degraded results
Limited community documentation and benchmarks as an OSS safeguard model makes capability assessment uncertain
Monthly cost estimate
See what OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b actually costs at your usage level
Input tokens / month1M
10k50M
Output tokens / month500k
10k25M
Input cost
$0.075
Output cost
$0.150
Total / month
$0.225
Based on OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b API pricing: $0.075/1M input · $0.3/1M output. Real costs vary by provider discounts and caching. Check the provider for exact current rates.
Price History
OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b pricing over time
→0% since Mar 27
2 data points · tracked daily since Mar 27, 2026
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This is a pinned legacy snapshot (v0613) and may eventually be deprecated by OpenAI. The 4,095-token context window is its most significant practical limitation. OpenAI's own GPT-4o mini offers drastically more context and better quality at a comparable price — strongly consider migrating.
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The new budget default for OpenAI API users: faster, cheaper, and smarter than GPT-4o with a context window that punches well above its price tier.
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$0.25/1M in
$2.00/1M out
Speed
Very fast
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Context
400k tokens
Output cost of $2/1M tokens is higher than some competing budget models (Gemini Flash at ~$0.60/1M output). At scale, output-heavy tasks may erode cost advantages — monitor token ratios carefully. Supersedes GPT-4o, which may be deprecated on a rolling basis.
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High-volume production workloads — chatbots, summarization pipelines, and document Q&A — where cost efficiency matters more than peak reasoning.
GPT-5.1-Codex-Mini is OpenAI's budget-tier coding-specialized model built on the GPT-5.1 architecture, optimized for code generation, completion, and debugging at low cost. It offers a 400K context window, making it practical for large codebases without the price tag of flagship models.
Verdict
The sharpest budget coding model available if you need speed, volume, and a long context window without breaking your API budget.
Quality score
63%
Pricing
$0.25/1M in
$2.00/1M out
Speed
Very fast
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Context
400k tokens
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Best for
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Pricing moves, ranking shifts, and capability updates.
New ModelMar 27, 2026
OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b — added to UseRightAI
OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b (OpenAI) is now indexed. A purpose-built safety classifier that's excellent at its narrow job and essentially useless outside it.
OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b is best for automated content moderation pipelines and safety classification at scale.. It is a strong fit when that workflow matters more than the tradeoffs around budget pricing and fast speed.
When should I avoid OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b?
You need a general-purpose assistant for coding, writing, analysis, or any task beyond content safety classification and policy enforcement.
What is a cheaper alternative to OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b?
Llama Guard 3 8B is the lower-cost option to compare first when you want a similar workflow fit with less token spend.
What is a faster alternative to OpenAI: gpt-oss-safeguard-20b?
OpenAI: GPT-3.5 Turbo (older v0613) is the better pick when response time matters more than maximum depth or premium quality.
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