# Celeris-1 Decision vs Vela 2.0

> Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Celeris-1 Decision's 49.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Celeris-1 Decision leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. Celeris-1 Decision is cheaper for inference decision, $0 against $0 per 1M…

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Celeris-1 Decision's 49.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Celeris-1 Decision leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference decision. Celeris-1 Decision is cheaper for inference decision, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

- Celeris-1 Decision: grade D, 49.3/100, rank #708 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/celeris-1-decision.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/celeris-1-decision.json
- Vela 2.0: grade B, 66.5/100, rank #268 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vela.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json

## Which one, for what

### Celeris-1 Decision (D)

Good for: Multimodal classification, routing and bounded decisions with probabilities and optional explanations

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 53 against 48

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for inference decision, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Early-access terms and capacity-dependent workspace activation

### Vela 2.0 (B)

Good for: Self-hosted routing and guardrail checks in one call, where span offsets for personal data or unsupported claims matter.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 60
- Security & auth, 60 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 40

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No version tags on the four Hub repositories, and the 4B and 9B weights were replaced in place on 3 October 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Celeris-1 Decision | Vela 2.0 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 57 | Vela 2.0 +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 60 | 78 | Vela 2.0 +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 79 | Celeris-1 Decision +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 45 | 60 | Vela 2.0 +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | Vela 2.0 +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 40 | 84 | Vela 2.0 +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 53 | 48 | Celeris-1 Decision +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **49.3 · D** | **66.5 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Celeris-1 Decision | Vela 2.0 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Celeris (Marqo Inc) | vLLM Semantic Router project and KR Labs |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://inference.celeris.ai/celeris-1-decision/v1/systemone` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Price for inference decision | free | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted model under Celeris terms of service | Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-08 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-23 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | none | 6.1k stars |

## Verdicts

**Celeris-1 Decision.** Typed probabilities, image inputs and optional explanations suit routing and classification inside an agent. Both System One and OpenAI Decisions request formats are documented. The service remains early access under its terms, activation can queue, and prepaid credit expires after 30 days. The published accuracy and latency figures are Celeris measurements, not Anchor Terminal tests.

**Vela 2.0.** One self-hosted call answers routing, prompt-attack, personal-data and unsupported-claim questions with probabilities and character offsets, under Apache-2.0 with SHA-256 manifests. The models are days old and carry no Hub version tags, and the three larger sizes keep 74 to 89 per cent of their Decision 2.0 bases on the Jev Decision Index by the authors' figures.

## Before you call either

### Celeris-1 Decision

1. Use the decision model path and matching model field. This model has no chat, Responses or models endpoint.
2. Use at most 512 questions per request, or 64 with explanations. Both endpoints reject streaming.
3. Preserve x_celeris in a custom Jev SDK response model when reading explanations. The default response type drops it.
4. Retry 429 with Retry-After and backoff. Stop on 402 until workspace credit is replenished.
5. Read usage.input_tokens for cost, including images and request overhead. Track credit expiry separately from token consumption.

### Vela 2.0

1. Pin a commit hash with `revision=` when loading from the Hub. The repositories have no tags and `main` has changed since launch
2. Send the served name in `model`, for example `vllm-sr/Vela-2.0-4B`. The bundled server answers 422 to any other name
3. Name span questions `pii`, `halu` or `toxic`, or set `"head": "router"`, to get the trained router head. Other labels go to the broad head
4. Keep input under 16,384 tokens a sequence (8,192 on the 0.3B). The bundled server answers 413 when the questions alone don't fit
5. Set `VELA2_API_KEY` before binding the bundled server beyond 127.0.0.1, and keep the model runtime on a trusted network

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Celeris-1 Decision or Vela 2.0?

Vela 2.0 scores 66.5 (B) on agent readiness against Celeris-1 Decision's 49.3 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Celeris-1 Decision leads on transparency & trust.

### Which is cheaper for inference decision, Celeris-1 Decision or Vela 2.0?

Celeris-1 Decision, at free against free for Vela 2.0. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Celeris-1 Decision and Vela 2.0 need an API key?

Celeris-1 Decision needs an API key. Vela 2.0 needs no key.

### Can an agent call Celeris-1 Decision and Vela 2.0 without installing anything?

Celeris-1 Decision has a hosted endpoint at https://inference.celeris.ai/celeris-1-decision/v1/systemone. No hosted endpoint is listed for Vela 2.0.

### Are Celeris-1 Decision and Vela 2.0 open source?

No open-source release is listed for Celeris-1 Decision. Vela 2.0 is open source (Apache-2.0 (weights, code and documentation). The 0.3B's tokeniser keeps the Gemma Terms of Use, and training data keeps its own licences).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-vela.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-vela.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "celeris-1-decision", "b": "vela"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare celeris-1-decision vela`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/celeris-1-decision.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vela.json

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