# Laya vs SPEV

> Laya scores 69.2 (B) to SPEV's 51.1 (D) for decision models. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-sprag-spev
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-sprag-spev.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-sprag-spev.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-sprag-spev.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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-15

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against SPEV's 51.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do decision models.

- Laya: grade B, 69.2/100, rank #202 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/convai-laya.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/convai-laya.json
- SPEV: grade D, 51.1/100, rank #819 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprag-spev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sprag-spev.json
- Best decision models for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/decision-models/index.md
- All 136 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 45
- Security & auth, 57 against 33
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 83 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 54

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

### SPEV (D)

Good for: Typed decisions over raw audio, such as end-of-turn detection, call triage and flagging, plus text and single images, hosted or self-hosted.

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Published on 14 October 2026, with no service record, no status page and no API changelog


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Laya | SPEV | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 45 | Laya +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 81 | SPEV +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 76 | Laya +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 33 | Laya +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Laya +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 49 | Laya +34 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 54 | Laya +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **69.2 · B** | **51.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Laya | SPEV |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Convai Innovations | Sprag |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.sprag.ai/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (weights and inference code, following the Qwen3-Omni base). Training code and data aren't published |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| 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.

**SPEV.** SPEV answers typed questions over text, audio or an image in one call, with a public OpenAPI schema and Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face. It is a day old, has an 8,192-token context, no status page or changelog, and Sprag's terms let it train on API content unless the customer opts out by email.

## 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

### SPEV

1. Send `model: "spev"` to `POST https://api.sprag.ai/v1/decisions` with a bearer key. `/v1/systemone` returns 410
2. Ask every question about one piece of evidence in one request. Answers come back in question order
3. Send audio as base64 in `input_audio` with `format`, not as a data URL, and at most one image across all messages
4. Keep evidence and questions under 8,192 tokens. Over the limit returns 400 `model_limit_exceeded`
5. Back off on 429 and 503 for `Retry-After` seconds. Limits are 60 requests a minute per organisation by default
6. Handle an answer of type `refusal`, which carries no probabilities

## Questions

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

Laya scores 69.2 (B) on agent readiness against SPEV's 51.1 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

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

Laya needs no key. SPEV needs an API key.

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

Laya runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. SPEV has a hosted endpoint at https://api.sprag.ai/v1/decisions.

### Are Laya and SPEV open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Laya or SPEV

- [Celeris-1 Decision vs Laya](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-convai-laya.md)
- [Celeris-1 Decision vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/celeris-1-decision-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Clef vs Laya](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-convai-laya.md)
- [Clef vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-clef-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Laya vs Decider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-decider.md)
- [Laya vs Decision 3.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-decision-3.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 Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-microsoft-decision-1.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 ScaleDown](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/convai-laya-vs-scaledown.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 SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decider-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Decision 3.0 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/decision-3-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [GLiClass vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gliclass-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Kev vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jaredpalmer-kev-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Liquid d1 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liquid-d1-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Microsoft-Decision-1 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-decision-1-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [Drex 1.5 vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nace-drex-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [OpenAI Decisions API vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-decisions-api-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [pplx-decider vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pplx-decider-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [ScaleDown vs SPEV](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scaledown-vs-sprag-spev.md)
- [SPEV vs Strands Decider 2B](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprag-spev-vs-strands-decider.md)
- [SPEV vs Jev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprag-spev-vs-typesafe-jev.md)
- [SPEV vs Vela 2.0](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprag-spev-vs-vela.md)