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Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Clef vs pplx-decider

Clef scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do decision models.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 66 decisions comparisons

ClefCloudflare · Model API B66.1/100#301 of 950 pplx-deciderPerplexity · Model API B62.9/100#417 of 950

Which one, for what

Clef B

Good for Classification, routing and rubric scoring over text, JSON and images inside Cloudflare, or self-hosted where data can't leave.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 69 against 61
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 25
  • Transparency & trust, 86 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Released on 1 October 2026, with no service record and no entry in the Workers AI changelog we read

pplx-decider B

Good for High-volume classification, routing and rubric scoring over text and images where a team wants a low hosted price and the option to run the same weights itself.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 75
  • Maintenance & community, 62 against 56

Watch for

The Decisions API was released in October 2026, so its incident record is days long, and Perplexity's FAQ says it gives no uptime guarantee

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClefpplx-deciderEdge
Reliability16%206161even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27590pplx-decider +15
Agent ergonomics13%16.27576pplx-decider +1
Security & auth14%17.56961Clef +8
Payments & pricing10%12.54025Clef +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85662pplx-decider +6
Transparency & trust7%8.88652Clef +34
Negative events≤1500
Total66.1 · B62.9 · B

Facts side by side

FactClefpplx-decider
KindModel APIModel API
VendorCloudflarePerplexity
Hosted endpointhttps://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clefhttps://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions
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 publishedApache-2.0 for the published weights. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-05
Terms last updated2025-09-12couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessyescouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waiveryescouldn't be read
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Clef

Apache-2.0 weights for both models on Hugging Face, ungated, with no account needed to download. Released on 1 October 2026, with no service record and no entry in the Workers AI changelog we read.

pplx-decider

The hosted Decisions API has an OpenAPI description, typed questions, documented limits and a published price of $0.02 per million input tokens, and the v1.1 weights are public under Apache-2.0. The API is days old, the official Python SDK has no method for it, and the governing terms and privacy notice could not be read on 9 October 2026.

Before you call either

Clef

  1. Send model as clef or clef-flash in the body as well as 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. It costs $0.09 per million input tokens against $0.24
  4. Read the internal code on a 429. 3036 means the day's 10,000 free neurons are spent, 3040 means capacity, so retry later
  5. Treat an answer about user-supplied text as a judgement that hostile input can steer. Cloudflare publishes no guidance on it

pplx-decider

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer. A key in x-api-key returns 401 on this endpoint.
  2. Set model on every request. A missing or unknown model returns 400, and the guide shows a -latest name rejected.
  3. Resize images to 2,048 tiles of 32 by 32 pixels or fewer before sending. Larger images end in a 504 after about a minute.
  4. Check the HTTP status before parsing an error. 404 and 405 have empty bodies, 504 can be HTML, and error.code changes type.
  5. For the weights, use the repository's autojev code. The card says default causal inference does not reproduce the evaluated setup.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Clef or pplx-decider?

Clef scores 66.1 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

Do Clef and pplx-decider need an API key?

Both need an API key.

Can an agent call Clef and pplx-decider without installing anything?

Yes. Clef has a hosted endpoint at https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/{account_id}/ai/run/@cf/cloudflare/clef and pplx-decider at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.

Other comparisons with Clef or pplx-decider

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