GPT-OSS 20B Environmental Impact
Compact open-weight model — runs on 16GB edge devices
- Architecture
- Dense Transformer (open-weight, compact)
- Parameters
- 20B
- Context
- 128,000 tokens
- Provider
- OpenAI
Energy per query
0.35 Wh
about the same as a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.15 g
Global Average grid (475 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
1 mL
~769 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Self-hosted / Edge (16GB)
Provider
OpenAI
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
475 g CO2/kWh (27% renewable)
How does GPT-OSS 20B compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
GPT-OSS 20B achieves o3-mini level performance while running on 16GB edge devices. At ~0.35 Wh per query, it is highly efficient and deployable on consumer GPUs, laptops, and edge hardware. Apache 2.0 licensed.
Power Source & Carbon
Fully open-weight. Can run on a laptop GPU, making it one of the most accessible capable models.
Water Usage
At ~1.3 mL per query on cloud. Zero on consumer hardware.
About GPT-OSS 20B
GPT-OSS 20B is an open-source text and chat model from OpenAI, released in August 7, 2025, that runs well below the category average for energy consumption at 0.35 Wh per query. Because its weights are publicly available, it can be self-hosted on any infrastructure — meaning its carbon footprint depends entirely on where and how you choose to run it. At 20B parameters, it compact open-weight model — runs on 16gb edge devices.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — OpenAI has not published official energy data for GPT-OSS 20B. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
GPT-OSS 20B in Context
Your yearly GPT-OSS 20B footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual GPT-OSS 20B usage consumes 3.2 kWh — comparable to running a LED light bulb for a month. That produces 1.4 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
OpenAI GPT Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your GPT-OSS 20B usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use GPT-OSS 20B.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does GPT-OSS 20B use per query?
Each GPT-OSS 20B query consumes approximately 0.35 Wh of energy. This is about the same as a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is GPT-OSS 20B's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Self-hosted / Edge (16GB), each query produces approximately 0.15 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 475 g CO2/kWh with 27% renewable energy.
How much water does GPT-OSS 20B use?
Each query consumes approximately 1 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does GPT-OSS 20B compare to a Google search?
A GPT-OSS 20B query uses about the same as a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while GPT-OSS 20B uses 0.35 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer (open-weight, compact)
Parameters
20B
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2025-08-07
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2025-06