# Decider vs OpenAI Decisions API

> OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Decider's 69.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Decider leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes…

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- 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

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Decider's 69.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Decider leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do inference decision.

- Decider: grade B, 69.5/100, rank #172 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/decider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/decider.json
- OpenAI Decisions API: grade BB, 71.5/100, rank #119 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-decisions-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-decisions-api.json

## Which one, for what

### Decider (B)

Good for: Local classification, routing, triage and checks where a team wants open weights in several sizes and a Jev-shaped route.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 90 against 53
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 77

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: The local server has no authentication option. It binds to 127.0.0.1 since 1.7.1

### OpenAI Decisions API (BB)

Good for: High-volume yes or no checks, routing among fixed options and rubric scoring over text and images, for teams already on an OpenAI key.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 78
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 80
- Security & auth, 83 against 38
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 46

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Public beta released on 6 October 2026. The guide expects general availability in the coming weeks and gives no date


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Decider | OpenAI Decisions API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 90 | 53 | Decider +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 89 | OpenAI Decisions API +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 87 | OpenAI Decisions API +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 38 | 83 | OpenAI Decisions API +45 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Decider +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 77 | Decider +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 46 | 83 | OpenAI Decisions API +37 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **69.5 · B** | **71.5 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Decider | OpenAI Decisions API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Mark Marosi (Mapika) | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Price for inference decision | free | $0.10 per 1M tokens |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (code and weights) | Proprietary service under OpenAI's services agreement. The official SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-06 |
| 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 | 1.1k stars, 2.7k PyPI/wk | 32k stars |

## Verdicts

**Decider.** An Apache-2.0 decision model family with a dated changelog, passing CI, 21 package releases since 22 September 2026 and model cards that list measured regressions. One person maintains it, the local server has no authentication option, states over 32,768 tokens are cut without an error, and no security policy is published.

**OpenAI Decisions API.** Typed predicate, choice and score answers with probabilities, up to 200 questions a call, at $0.10 per million input tokens with no output charge. It is a public beta released on 6 October 2026, with one model alias, no dated snapshot, no Batch route and no SLA found.

## Before you call either

### Decider

1. Pin weights by Hub tag (`v10`, `v2`) when results must repeat. The `main` branch of each model repository changes with new versions
2. Read `x_p_max` for the top probability. Since 1.3.0 `confidence` on choice and score answers follows TypeSafe's rescaled definition, not the top probability
3. Keep the server on 127.0.0.1 or put an authenticating proxy in front. It has no key option
4. Count state tokens before sending. Over 32,768 the state is cut silently, and `/decide` caps context at 1,536 tokens
5. Split multi-step arithmetic or multi-hop judgements into several questions, and don't write long rules into a question. The README says both fail

### OpenAI Decisions API

1. Put independent questions about one input in a single `questions` array. Send a separate request when a question depends on an earlier answer
2. Check each answer's `type` before reading it. A question can come back as `refusal` while the others in the same request are answered
3. Encode images as base64 data URLs. Hosted URLs and `file_id` inputs are rejected
4. Give a `choice` question a fallback value such as `other`, and set thresholds from your own labelled examples
5. Use Python SDK 3.26.0 or JavaScript 7.30.0 or later, and follow `Retry-After` on 429 and 503

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Decider or OpenAI Decisions API?

OpenAI Decisions API scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Decider's 69.5 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Decider leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

### Which is cheaper for inference decision, Decider or OpenAI Decisions API?

Decider, at free against $0.10 per 1M tokens for OpenAI Decisions API. These are the vendors' published prices for the job.

### Do Decider and OpenAI Decisions API need an API key?

Decider needs no key. OpenAI Decisions API needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Decider and OpenAI Decisions API without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Decider. OpenAI Decisions API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/decisions.

### Are Decider and OpenAI Decisions API open source?

Decider is open source (Apache-2.0 (code and weights)). No open-source release is listed for OpenAI Decisions API.


## For agents

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

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