How do I deploy GPT-OSS 20B on Railway?

You can deploy GPT-OSS 20B on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: gpt-oss-20b-d6687bfa, or join our Discord community for more assistance.

OSS

Deploy and Host GPT-OSS 20B on Railway

GPT-OSS 20B is a powerful open-weight, 20-billion-parameter large language model designed for reasoning, coding, and chat-based interactions. With this template, you can deploy it in minutes on Railway, complete with a built-in API and browser-based chat interface powered by Ollama and OpenWebUI.

About Hosting GPT-OSS 20B

Hosting GPT-OSS 20B on Railway gives you a fully self-contained AI stack. It uses Ollama as the backend model server and OpenWebUI as the chat interface, preconfigured to run together automatically. Once deployed, Ollama will pull and serve the gpt-oss:20b model while OpenWebUI provides a clean interface for chat. You’ll also get a ready-to-use API endpoint, allowing you to call the model directly from any app, service, or workflow.

The setup includes persistent storage for models, so downloads only happen once, and can scale up easily by adjusting your Railway plan.

System Requirements

Resource	Recommended	Notes
CPU	4 vCPUs +	Required for model inference
RAM	24 GB +	GPT-OSS 20B (≈14 GB quantized) needs extra memory overhead
Disk	20 GB +	Model stored at `/root/.ollama`
Network	Stable connection	Required for initial model download

💡 Railway Hosting Tip: Railway’s free plan includes limited CPU and RAM, which may not be sufficient for large models like GPT-OSS 20B. You can deploy the stack (Link) on the free tier to test configuration, but for actual model usage, upgrade to a Pro Plan with more RAM and compute.
If you only want to explore the chat interface, try the lightweight version of this template (with smaller models like Mistral 7B or Gemma 2B).

Common Use Cases

🧠 Host a private ChatGPT-style assistant using GPT-OSS 20B
⚙️ Call the API endpoint from LangChain, Flowise, or any external application
💬 Prototype and test custom LLM agents or workflows using open-weight models

Dependencies for GPT-OSS 20B Hosting

Ollama — model server handling GPT-OSS 20B inference and API hosting
OpenWebUI — web-based chat interface for interacting with GPT-OSS 20B

Deployment Dependencies

GPT-OSS Models: ollama.com/library/gpt-oss
Ollama Docs: docs.ollama.com
OpenWebUI: github.com/open-webui/open-webui
Railway Docs: docs.railway.app
You can read more about the models here: Link

FAQ

1. What is GPT-OSS 20B?
GPT-OSS 20B is an open-weight large language model with 20 billion parameters, built for text, reasoning, and code generation. It’s an open alternative to GPT-style models that can run locally via Ollama.

2. Is GPT-OSS 20B free to use?
Yes, the model itself is open source and free. You only pay for the hosting resources used on Railway.

3. Can I deploy GPT-OSS 20B on Railway’s free plan?
You can deploy it, but performance will be limited due to memory constraints. For smooth usage, upgrade to a Pro Plan with higher CPU and RAM.

4. Do I need a GPU to run GPT-OSS 20B?
No — Ollama supports CPU inference, though GPU acceleration improves performance significantly.

5. How can I access the GPT-OSS API?
After deployment, use the endpoint provided in Railway:

http://.railway.internal:11434

You can send POST requests to /api/generate or connect directly from LangChain or other frameworks.

6. What happens after redeploys?
Downloaded models remain stored in Railway’s persistent volume, so they don’t re-download each time.

Why Deploy GPT-OSS 20B on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying GPT-OSS 20B on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.