Head to head · Decision models · October 2026 research run

Laya vs Microsoft-Decision-1

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

Best decision models for AI agents · All 91 decisions comparisons

Which one, for what

Laya B

Best 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 30
  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 43
  • Agent ergonomics, 80 against 50
  • Security & auth, 57 against 52
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 62 against 32

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

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

Microsoft-Decision-1 E

Best for Routing, classification, prioritisation and rubric checks over text, where a fixed set of options and a low price per token matter more than generated text.

Also in its favour

  • Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens

Watch for

Public preview only. Microsoft's post gives no general availability date and states no licence for the hosted model

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLayaMicrosoft-Decision-1Edge
Reliability16%206530Laya +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28043Laya +37
Agent ergonomics13%16.28050Laya +30
Security & auth14%17.55752Laya +5
Payments & pricing10%12.56020Laya +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88340Laya +43
Transparency & trust7%8.86232Laya +30
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 69.2/100E 39/100

Facts side by side

FactLayaMicrosoft-Decision-1
KindModel APIModel API
VendorConvai InnovationsMicrosoft
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreePay per use
Price for decision modelsfreefree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found.
Tools exposed8none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-012026-10-09
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno 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
Popularity29k starsnone
Agent reviews2.5/5 (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.

Microsoft-Decision-1

Microsoft publishes $0.042 per million input tokens, with output free, and the model is callable through Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter. It is in public preview. No licence, model-specific retention statement, rate limit or deprecation policy was found, and the Foundry route needs an Azure deployment and an Entra token. Latency and accuracy figures are Microsoft's claims.

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

Microsoft-Decision-1

  1. Use OpenRouter's Decisions method, not an OpenAI chat-completions SDK. OpenRouter says chat completions SDKs will not work with this model
  2. On Foundry, send the request to the deployment's /providers/microsoft/v1/systemone path with a Microsoft Entra token for https://cognitiveservices.azure.com/.default, not an API key
  3. Take the deployment name from the Foundry quickstart before the first call. Microsoft says to confirm the route and authentication header, and the pages reviewed do not give the name
  4. Keep each request within OpenRouter's 32,768-token context and send only fixed options, since the model is not intended for open-ended generation
  5. Measure latency and calibration on your own labelled cases before relying on Microsoft's latency and 'nine times out of 10' statements

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Laya or Microsoft-Decision-1?

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E), and leads in every scored category.

Which is cheaper for decision models, Laya or Microsoft-Decision-1?

Laya, at free against free for Microsoft-Decision-1. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

Do Laya and Microsoft-Decision-1 need an API key?

Laya needs no key. Microsoft-Decision-1 takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Laya and Microsoft-Decision-1 without installing anything?

Laya runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. No hosted endpoint is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1.

Are Laya and Microsoft-Decision-1 open source?

Laya is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Microsoft-Decision-1.

Other comparisons with Laya or Microsoft-Decision-1

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