# Laya vs GLiClass

> Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-09

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do inference decision.

- Laya: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #183 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/convai-laya.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/convai-laya.json
- GLiClass: grade D, 49.9/100, rank #697 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gliclass.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gliclass.json

## Which one, for what

### Laya (B)

Good for: Fast, cheap classification and routing on short text in many languages, as a base to fine-tune on your own labels, and as an MCP or LangGraph routing step.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 49
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 60
- Security & auth, 57 against 38
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Base checkpoints score 0.362 and 0.352 on the maintainers' typed-decisions benchmark against a 0.318 random baseline, so it needs fine-tuning

### GLiClass (D)

Good for: Topic, intent and sentiment routing over a known label set on the owner's own CPU or GPU, where many labels must be scored at once.

Watch for: No calibration evidence. The cards report F1 only, and the docs tell users to calibrate thresholds on their own traffic


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Laya | GLiClass | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 43 | Laya +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 49 | Laya +31 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 60 | Laya +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 38 | Laya +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 44 | Laya +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 64 | GLiClass +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.2 · B** | **49.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Laya | GLiClass |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Convai Innovations | Knowledgator |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked) |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-07-21 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 29k stars | 555 stars, 13k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Laya.** Apache-2.0 code and weights, installed with `pip install laya`, with Python 3.10 to 3.13 tested in CI. Base checkpoints score 0.362 and 0.352 on the maintainers' typed-decisions benchmark against a 0.318 random baseline, so it needs fine-tuning.

**GLiClass.** An Apache-2.0 classifier that scores a whole label set in one encoder pass on the owner's hardware, with single-label, multi-label, hierarchical and few-shot modes. It returns label scores with no calibration claim, the bundled server has no authentication, and the last three test runs on the main branch, on 24 September 2026, failed.

## Before you call either

### Laya

1. Set `LAYA_API_KEY` before starting `laya-serve`. It listens on every interface by default
2. Gate on `answer_confidence`, not `confidence`, which measures entropy and doesn't match Jev's field
3. Shortlist choice questions with more than about 20 options using `predict_shortlist` or the `laya_shortlist` tool
4. Use semantic or opaque labels such as `A` and `B`, not `yes` and `no`, in choice questions. The checkpoints can follow the label text
5. Pass `model="multilingual"` and `max_len=8192` for long documents. The English checkpoint stops at 512 tokens

### GLiClass

1. Pass `--host 127.0.0.1` to `python -m gliclass.serve`, or put the port behind your own gateway. The server checks no credential
2. On a machine without a GPU add `--device cpu --dtype float32 --num-gpus-per-replica 0`. The default configuration expects CUDA
3. Send one text a request to `POST /gliclass`. An array in `texts` is cut to its first item without an error
4. Set `multi_label` to false for one label from a set. The default scores each label independently, so scores do not sum to 1
5. Keep text plus labels under the pipeline's 1,024-token `max_length`, or use `ZeroShotClassificationWithChunkingPipeline`. Longer input is truncated silently

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Laya or GLiClass?

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against GLiClass's 49.9 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Laya and GLiClass need an API key?

Neither needs a key.

### Can an agent call Laya and GLiClass without installing anything?

Laya runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for GLiClass.

### Are Laya and GLiClass open source?

Yes. Laya is open source (Apache-2.0). GLiClass is open source (Apache-2.0 (library and the model weights we checked)).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Laya or GLiClass

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Laya](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-convai-laya.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs GLiClass](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-gliclass.md)
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- [Laya vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [Laya vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [Laya vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Laya vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Laya vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Laya vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-vela.md)
- [Decider vs GLiClass](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-gliclass.md)
- [GLiClass vs Kev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-jaredpalmer-kev.md)
- [GLiClass vs Liquid d1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-liquid-d1.md)
- [GLiClass vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [GLiClass vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [GLiClass vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [GLiClass vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-vela.md)