# Laya vs pplx-decider

> Laya scores 69.2 (B) to pplx-decider's 62.9 (B) for decision models. pplx-decider 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-pplx-decider
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-pplx-decider.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-pplx-decider.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-pplx-decider.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: 2026-10-09

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation. Both do decision models. pplx-decider is cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens.

- Laya: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #192 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/convai-laya.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/convai-laya.json
- pplx-decider: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #417 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/pplx-decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/pplx-decider.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 66 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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 52

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

### 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 80

Also in its favour:
- Cheaper for decision models, $0 against $0 per 1M tokens
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

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

| Category | Weight | Laya | pplx-decider | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 61 | Laya +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 90 | pplx-decider +10 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 76 | Laya +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 61 | pplx-decider +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 25 | Laya +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 62 | Laya +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 52 | Laya +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.2 · B** | **62.9 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Laya | pplx-decider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Convai Innovations | Perplexity |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for decision models | free | free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 for the published weights. The hosted Decisions API is a proprietary service |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | couldn't be read |
| 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Laya or pplx-decider?

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against pplx-decider's 62.9 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. pplx-decider leads on schema & documentation.

### Which is cheaper for decision models, Laya or pplx-decider?

Laya, at free against free for pplx-decider. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Laya and pplx-decider need an API key?

Laya needs no key. pplx-decider needs an API key.

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

Laya runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. pplx-decider has a hosted endpoint at https://api.perplexity.ai/v1/decisions.

### Are Laya and pplx-decider open source?

Laya is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for pplx-decider.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Laya or pplx-decider

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