Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Clef vs Gemini Decision 1

Clef scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Gemini Decision 1's 63.2 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Gemini Decision 1 leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community. Both do decision models.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 241 decisions comparisons

Which one, for what

Clef B

Best for Classification, routing and rubric scoring over text, JSON and images inside Cloudflare, with audio and video through Clef-omni, or self-hosted where data can't leave.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 68 against 40
  • Security & auth, 72 against 45
  • Transparency & trust, 87 against 70

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Hosted Clef-flash's context fell from 64K to 24K tokens on 9 October 2026, announced in the changelog the day it took effect

Gemini Decision 1 B

Best for Routing, tool selection, policy checks and rubric grading over mixed media, where many fixed questions share one input and generated text isn't needed.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 75
  • Maintenance & community, 79 against 59

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Clef loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No context caching, Batch API, Flex or Priority: the guide says repeated input across requests counts in full

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability Clef +28

Clef 68

Scored as a hosted model on Workers AI. www.cloudflarestatus.com is a Statuspage with Workers AI as its own component (20). Clef's public record runs from its release on 1 October 2026, 31 days before 1 November. The incidents feed read on 9 October for the Workers AI listing held 21 September to 8 October, none naming Workers AI. The feed read on 20 October for the Clairic listing held 5 to 19 October, with one Workers AI incident, minor, on 15 October, errors on five DeepSeek and GLM models, not Clef. The feed read on 1 November holds 50 incidents from 16 to 31 October. Workers AI is named only in "Issues with AI Security for Apps" on 27 October, intermittent failures in unsafe topic detection with impact none, which doesn't touch Clef. The 23 October network incident, labelled major, describes some traffic between Ashburn and Atlanta and some customers in North America, and the 27 October major affected customers whose traffic passes through an external vendor firewall, so both read as partial, as cloudflare-clairic and cloudflare-workers-ai read them. The history page, read on 1 November, shows nothing naming Workers AI from 29 October to 1 November. So Clef's whole life is read and nothing touched it. A record this short reads as 15 of 30 in this run, as cloudflare-clairic (13 days) and pplx-decider (31 days) read theirs, so the 10 October 8, which isn't a checklist value, is brought into line (15). The model page lists Clef under Text Generation, whose default limit is 300 requests a minute, though Clef isn't named on the limits page (13 of 15). The errors page gives 429 two internal codes, 3036 for a spent free allocation and 3040 for capacity, per the Workers AI listing's check. No Retry-After was found for a 3040. A call has no side effects, so a retry is safe (10 of 15). No SLA for Workers AI found (0). The Clef and Clef-flash model pages, re-read on 1 November, carry no beta label (10). 20 + 15 + 13 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 68.

Gemini Decision 1 40

Model reading for gemini-decision-1 on the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Status page at aistudio.google.com/status with no readable components or history (10 of 20) and no readable incident record (5 of 30). Rate-limit tiers and spend limits published for the platform, but the public rate-limit page, read on 11 November, has no row for Decision 1 and sends you to AI Studio (5 of 15). Backoff guidance for 429 and 503 and SDK retries (15). No SLA (0). The guide and the model page, read on 11 November, state no launch stage; the endpoint is v1beta and the model has one version, so half, as Gemini 4 Carbon was read (5 of 10). 10 + 5 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 5 = 40.

Security & auth Clef +27

Clef 72

Read for a model API. Cloudflare API tokens scoped to Workers AI permissions on an account and revocable, per the Cloudflare MCP listing's check of 1 October. Permission is per account, not per model (27 of 30). The Workers AI data page (updated 16 October 2026, per the Clairic listing's 1 November check) says standard inference keeps no inputs or outputs after the response and Customer Content isn't used to train models, and the launch post says Cloudflare doesn't read, store or train on Clef requests or responses outside the fine-tuning service (18 of 20). Clef is pitched at support triage and threat intelligence, both untrusted input, and we found no guidance on adversarial or injected content in the model page, the launch post or the model card. Self-hosting runs custom code from the model repository (3 of 15). The launch post's fine-tuning flow captures datasets through AI Gateway, and gateway logs record each request when one is used. Account audit logs record token changes per the Cloudflare MCP check (6 of 15). security.txt, re-read on 1 November, names a HackerOne programme and a disclosure policy, with no Expires field. Cloudflare's ISO certifications page, read on 1 November, says Cloudflare is certified to ISO 27001 (since 2019, now to its 2022 edition), ISO 27018 and ISO 27701, with a scope of the Cloudflare global cloud platform. 2 held back for the missing Expires field, as cloudflare-clairic, cloudflare-r2, cloudflare-workers-ai and cloudflare-ai-gateway read the same evidence (18 of 20, 15 before, when certifications went unread). Clef-omni widens user-supplied input to audio and video, and Cloudflare publishes no guidance on hostile media. 27 + 18 + 3 + 6 + 18 = 72.

Gemini Decision 1 45

Model reading for gemini-decision-1 on the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Keys bound to a service account and restricted to the Gemini API, with no scopes and a token accepted in the URL (15 of 30, the platform's deduction). The pricing page, read on 11 November, says free-tier content is used to improve Google's products and paid-tier content isn't (10 of 20, the platform's reading). Abuse retention with no number (5 of 15). Request logs for billed projects are described for Generate Content; the Decisions guide says nothing on logging (10 of 15). security.txt and a reward programme, no certification naming the API (5 of 20). 15 + 10 + 5 + 10 + 5 = 45.

Maintenance & community Gemini Decision 1 +20

Clef 59

Read for a model. Clef and Clef-flash released on 1 October 2026 and Clef-omni on 9 October, the last hosted change, 23 days before this check (30). We found no stated minimum notice for Workers AI model changes. On 9 October Clef-flash's hosted context fell from 64k to 24k on an unversioned model ID, announced in the changelog the day it took effect. That is model churn (2 of 8). The changelog's notice of 8 May aliased Kimi K2.5 to the pricier K2.6 on 30 May, 22 days later, the reading cloudflare-clairic gives the same record (4 of 12). Cloudflare's product changelog has dated Clef entries on 1 and 9 October with an RSS feed, and Cloudflare's community and support channels weren't checked (9 of 15, 6 before, as Clairic). No Clef SDK. Clef is called through Workers AI's REST API and binding, and Cloudflare's SDKs are current, TypeScript 7.3.0 and Python 5.9.0 tagged 2 October 2026, still the newest on 1 November per the Workers AI listing's check (10 of 15, 8 before, when they weren't checked, as Clairic). The Hugging Face repositories, re-read on 1 November, were last changed on 30 October (benchmark results added to the cards) and carry custom code that local runs depend on. An SGLang launch command was added to the cards on 9 October. We found no Clef support in a vLLM release (4 of 10). 30 + 2 + 4 + 9 + 10 + 4 = 59.

Gemini Decision 1 79

Model reading for gemini-decision-1 on the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Released on 11 November 2026, the day of this check (30). Deprecations with earliest dates and no stated minimum notice (4 of 12). Shutdowns in the last 90 days kept to their table (4 of 8). Dated changelogs: google-genai 3.2.0's entry adds the Decisions API; the platform changelog wasn't re-read today (11 of 15). SDK replies not sampled (5 of 10). google-genai 3.2.0 tagged the same day with client.decisions.create; the JavaScript SDK is per Google's post (15). Runtimes stated on the platform (10). 30 + 4 + 4 + 11 + 5 + 15 + 10 = 79. The model is hours old, so these lines are the platform's habits more than this model's record.

Transparency & trust Clef +17

Clef 87

Weights and scoring code under Apache-2.0, following the Qwen base models. Training code and data aren't published (27 of 30). The Workers AI data page and the launch post agree, no training without consent and nothing kept unless you store it. Cloudflare's privacy policy and DPA exist, per the Cloudflare MCP check (26 of 30). The Workers AI changelog posts dated notices, such as the 8 May notice for Kimi K2.5, but we found no deprecation policy (10 of 20). Cloudflare's subprocessor page names 12 third parties and 16 group companies with locations, per the Cloudflare MCP check of 1 October. Where Clef inference runs isn't stated (14 of 20). Clef-omni is Apache-2.0 on its Hugging Face card, and we didn't check whether it publishes training code or data. The churn point sits under maintenance, so the deprecation item stays at 10 of 20. Hugging Face still shows all three models under apache-2.0 on 1 November. 27 + 26 + 10 + 14 = 77.

Gemini Decision 1 70

Model reading for gemini-decision-1 on the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Closed service with clear terms, SDKs Apache-2.0 (15). The pricing page states that free-tier content is used to improve products and paid-tier content isn't; abuse retention has no number (15 of 30). Deprecations table; the model page names no deprecation for this model (15 of 20). Data may be cached anywhere Google has facilities; no subprocessor list checked (5 of 20). Every benchmark, latency and cost comparison is Google's own, and the post gives charts without scores in its text. 15 + 15 + 15 + 5 = 50.

Agent ergonomics Gemini Decision 1 +10

Clef 75

Read as an API an agent calls for a decision, as with Jev, since Clef doesn't call tools or generate text. Answers are a probability per allowed option, so output stays small and the cost is the state, within 65,536 tokens. No batch or caching found for Clef (18 of 25). The caller fixes the output shape, with up to 64 questions and up to 4 images a call (18 of 20). Workers AI errors carry internal codes and messages, and a 429 tells a spent free allocation from a capacity limit. Nothing Clef-specific, such as which question failed validation, is documented (14 of 20). Calls are stateless and safe to retry, but there's no retry guidance beyond 'please try again' (15 of 20). Callable over REST and from a Worker through the AI binding. There's no Clef SDK, the body repeats the model name the URL already carries, and we found no documented way to point TypeSafe's SDKs, which post to /v1/systemone, at Clef (10 of 15). Clef-omni adds audio and video with documented token costs, but media must be base64-embedded, and long text state is truncated without a documented signal. Net unchanged. 18 + 18 + 14 + 15 + 10 = 75.

Gemini Decision 1 85

Read on the tool lines, as the other decision-model listings are. Model reading for gemini-decision-1 on the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Answers are probabilities only, and the shared input is billed once across up to 1,000 questions (25 of 25). Limits are written down: 262,144 tokens shared by the input and all questions, 1,000 questions, 2 to 255 options, inline data to 100 MB (50 MB for PDFs), 15 MB per external URL (20 of 20). Errors return HTTP 400 with a named code an agent can branch on, plus the platform's backoff advice (15 of 20). SDK retries and backoff guidance, no idempotency key; nothing is written, so a repeat only costs input again (10 of 20). Three required fields, SDK 3.2 or later in Python and JavaScript, and REST (15 of 15). 25 + 20 + 15 + 10 + 15 = 85.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClefGemini Decision 1Edge
Reliability16%206840Clef +28
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27880Gemini Decision 1 +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.27585Gemini Decision 1 +10
Security & auth14%17.57245Clef +27
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85979Gemini Decision 1 +20
Transparency & trust7%8.88770Clef +17
Negative events≤15-30
TotalB 68.3/100B 63.2/100

Facts side by side

FactClefGemini Decision 1
KindModel APIModel API
VendorCloudflareGoogle
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clefno (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPay per use
Price for decision modelsnot publishedfree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0 (weights and scoring code, following the Qwen base models). Training code and data aren't publishedClosed model, used through the Gemini API's Decisions endpoint under Google's terms. The google-genai SDK that calls it is Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-092026-11-11
Terms last updated2025-09-122026-04-28
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Clef

Apache-2.0 weights for all three models, ungated on Hugging Face, and Clef-omni (9 October 2026) adds audio and video input. Hosted Clef-flash's context fell from 64K to 24K tokens on 9 October, announced in the changelog that day, and no SLA or stated notice period for model changes was found for Workers AI.

Gemini Decision 1

Google's decision model scores up to 1,000 yes/no, choice and rubric questions per request over a 262,144-token multimodal input, at $0.10 per million input tokens, no output charge and a free tier. It is on a v1beta endpoint with no caching or batch discount, so repeated input is paid in full, and every speed and accuracy figure is Google's.

Before you call either

Clef

  1. Send model in the body as clef, clef-flash or clef-omni, matching the model in the URL. The input schema requires it
  2. Ask every independent question about one state in one call. Up to 64 are allowed
  3. Try clef-flash first for text-only triage under 24k tokens. It costs $0.038 per million input tokens against $0.24 for Clef
  4. Send Clef-omni audio and video as base64 data URIs in audio and videos. Remote URLs are not accepted
  5. Media and questions count towards the context window. If they exceed it, the request fails. Otherwise text state is truncated to fit
  6. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later
  7. Treat an answer about user-supplied text, images, audio or video as a judgement that hostile input can steer. Cloudflare publishes no guidance on it

Gemini Decision 1

  1. Call POST /v1beta/decisions or client.decisions.create (SDK 3.2 or later), not generateContent or the Interactions API
  2. Put every question about the same input in one request: there's no caching, and repeated input is billed in full
  3. Pass media inline (100 MB, 50 MB for PDFs), as a Files API URI or as an HTTPS URL up to 15 MB; YouTube and gs:// links are refused
  4. Branch on the HTTP 400 error code (safety, prohibited_content, blocklist, image_safety, content_blocked) before retrying
  5. Keep question keys to [A-Za-z0-9_-] and 64 characters, and options or levels between 2 and 255

Try them: tutorials for agents

Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Clef or Gemini Decision 1?

Clef scores 68.3 (B) on agent readiness against Gemini Decision 1's 63.2 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Gemini Decision 1 leads on agent ergonomics and maintenance & community.

Do Clef and Gemini Decision 1 need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Clef and Gemini Decision 1 without installing anything?

Clef has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clef. No hosted endpoint is listed for Gemini Decision 1.

Other comparisons with Clef or Gemini Decision 1

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.