Microsoft brings OpenAI’s new free GPT model to Windows 11

Microsoft is rolling out OpenAI’s new open-source model, gpt-oss-20b, to Windows 11 users via its Windows AI Foundry platform. The company said that it wants to enable users to leverage AI features, APIs, and popular open-source models directly on their PCs, without relying heavily on cloud infrastructure.

Described as “tool-savvy and lightweight,” gpt-oss-20b is designed for agentic tasks like code execution and tool usage. It’s optimised to run efficiently on a range of Windows hardware, making it ideal for building autonomous assistants or integrating AI into workflows, especially in environments with limited internet bandwidth. However, to run locally, devices will need GPUs with at least 16GB of VRAM, typically found in modern Nvidia or AMD Radeon cards.

“The release of gpt‑oss and its integration into Azure and Windows is part of a bigger story. We envision a future where AI is ubiquitous—and we are committed to being an open platform to bring these innovative technologies to our customers, across all our data centers and devices,” said Microsoft in a blog post.

Unlike OpenAI’s flagship models, gpt-oss-20b is strictly text-based. It cannot process or generate images or audio, focusing solely on text generation and tool-calling capabilities. The model was trained using high-compute reinforcement learning, enhancing its ability to power AI agents that can execute web searches or run Python code as part of their reasoning process.