# Laya vs Microsoft-Decision-1

> Laya scores 69.2 (B) to Microsoft-Decision-1's 39 (E) for decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-10

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.

- Laya: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #192 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/convai-laya.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/convai-laya.json
- Microsoft-Decision-1: grade E, 39/100, rank #921 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/microsoft-decision-1.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 91 decisions comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-models/index.md

## 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 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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | Laya | Microsoft-Decision-1 | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 30 | Laya +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 43 | Laya +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 50 | Laya +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 52 | Laya +5 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Laya +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 40 | Laya +43 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 32 | Laya +30 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.2 · B** | **39 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Laya | Microsoft-Decision-1 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Convai Innovations | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | free | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Not stated. The announcement and OpenRouter's model page name no licence, and no weights repository was found. |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-09 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 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 | none |
| 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.

**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.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Laya or Microsoft-Decision-1

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Laya](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-convai-laya.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
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- [Clef vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Laya vs Decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-decider.md)
- [Laya vs GLiClass](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-gliclass.md)
- [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 Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Laya vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Laya vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-pplx-decider.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 Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [GLiClass vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Kev vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-microsoft-decision-1.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Drex 1.5](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-nace-drex.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs OpenAI Decisions API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-openai-decisions-api.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs pplx-decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-pplx-decider.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-vela.md)